New Delhi: All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has asked “Islamic Scholars” and “Intellectuals” to boycott and stay away from TV debates.
The Muslim panel’s appeal to “scholars” and “intellectuals” seen in toxic TV debates came in the wake of widespread anger, in India and abroad, against outrageous, derogatory and blasphemous statements made by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma in a live TV show.
“The intention of these programmes is not to reach any conclusion through constructive discourse, but to ridicule and defame Islam and Muslims”, the Muslim Personal Law Board said in a statement released for media.
“To gather some legitimacy, these TV channels need Muslim faces in their debates… If we boycott such programmes and TV channels, not only will it affect their TRP negatively, but they will also fail in achieving their desired outcome through these debates,’’ the statement said.
The Muslim panel also raised questions about the intent of such debates and said the objectives behind those debates are to create an atmosphere of hatred in the country.
“TV channels design their debates not to improve the knowledge of the public but to insult Islam and its revered figures,” the Muslim panel said asking scholars and intellectuals to boycott the shows “whose sole intention is to make mockery of Islam and Muslims.”
In a related development, Samajwadi Party (SP) has also asked its party leaders to stay away from channels indulging in toxic debates and hate campaigns.
The appeal made by the Muslim panel is being hailed as timely and taken in the interest of the country and the community.
However what impact this appeal will have on the “Islamic scholars and Muslim intellectuals” regularly seen in the hateful TV debates is still to be seen. For, most of these people seen in TV debates neither have the membership of any known or familiar Muslim organisation nor have any history of their association with the community in any positive way.
It is also accused that these people are dubbed as “Islamic scholars and intellectuals” for the intended purpose whereas the fact is that they are being paid by the TV channels for their participation in toxic debates, that in most cases are pre-planned to create controversies so as to increase channels’ TRP.
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