The interview of al-Walaʾ magazine, in its issue for the sacred month of Muharram 1434 AH, with His Eminence Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi on the issues of Husayni satellite media:
1- How do you read the development of the early course of Husayni satellite media during the past period?
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The mechanisms of Husayni media used to be confined to the Husayni pulpit, which is listened to by a limited number of recipients, namely those who go to the ḥusayniyyas in person. This developed into the process of audio recording, which helped widen the reach of the Husayni voice. On the other hand, the book had a prominent role in propagating Husayni values and spreading the sacred account of Karbala; and the book in its turn is limited in number, since in the Arab and Islamic milieu a book is printed only in quantities of one thousand to three thousand copies in the best of cases.
Husayni media remained with these tools for a long time, even with the appearance of visual and satellite media through television channels. The course of Husayni satellite media was not early compared with other types of media, because of the suppression and monopolization of the tools of satellite media by governments and regimes, until the airwaves became available to everyone who has a voice he wants to propagate; thus he overcame the regimes’ blockade through the airwaves, and at a lower material cost than before. Husayni media in particular, within general Shiʿi media, occupied a wide position and rose to a prominent one, as the cause that carries within it religious fervor and the Islamic centrality around which revolve the concepts and values that religion establishes; the Husayni revolution was a revival of all that, and it is also a human cause that occupies a great place in the Islamic, and indeed the human, conscience.
After this course, which kept to the track and maintained its satellite presence among many voices, Husayni media has overcome its first hurdle of establishing its existence and presence as one form of giving and propagation. However, it needs to complete the course in the field of development and of dazzling impact, to win minds and hearts more effectively. We see that the step of the challenge of effectively winning minds and hearts is the next step for Husayni media, and to undertake it, it needs tools different from the tools of establishing existence.
2- Has this satellite media been able to keep pace with new developments and to be at the level of the global challenge?
We must first ask ourselves: what is the message of ʿAshura, and what is the Husayni cause that should reach the world? Then we ask ourselves: what are the contemporary global challenges? Then we link the two questions to what the Husayni cause can contribute at the global level, so that it takes on that challenge which befits its message.
The Husayni cause came to revive religion, to establish its landmarks in souls and to consolidate its values in reality at all levels; so the Husayni cause was a cause of reviving religion. This is the aim for the sake of which blood was shed and sacrifices continued. On the other hand, we see that contemporary global problems are many, in their social aspect and their political and intellectual aspects; but what unites them is intellectual deviation from the way of innate nature (fiṭra) before it is deviation from the way of religion. The way of religion came in harmony with man’s innate nature, for Allah the Exalted created man upon sound innate nature, which man has distorted.
The message that the Husayni cause can present to the world through the media, in order to take on the challenge at its global level, is the message of reviving values in souls as a prelude to raising the banner of values in reality, within their various specific features: in their political aspect, activating the values of justice and equality and the values of freedom and dignity; in their social aspect, reviving fairness, good conduct, peaceful coexistence, dealing with equity, and reviving the concepts of charitable giving; and likewise, in the intellectual aspect, propagating the values of heaven and knowledge founded on the guidance of the Holy Qurʾan and the Pure Progeny, so that people may be guided to the right path.
We can observe the giving at the individual level in the aspect of reviving values in souls, and its appearance in Husayni satellite media, and although it needs development and focus, we lack the aspect of reviving values in reality. This needs to be brought out and circulated, so that it may be grasped how Imam al-Husayn (a) wanted the form of the state and its features to be, how he wanted the social order to be, and how the intellectual approach should be.
3- How do we develop the level of discourse in Husayni satellite media?
Satellite discourse is mass discourse according to the classification commonly accepted in academic circles, and any mass discourse must take into account the groups targeted by that discourse. When we speak of giving through writing books, we can choose a certain level to which we direct the discourse, and the book will be chosen by whoever seeks it and searches for it. But in satellite media we are faced with a discourse that reaches millions of people who differ in their levels of comprehension and are varied in their cultures. Therefore development in Husayni satellite media should take the direction of addressing all the various groups in all societies, and not be content with addressing the Shiʿi mentality that believes in Imam al-Husayn (a); rather, it should go beyond it to addressing the mentality that believes in Imam al-Husayn (a) as one of the righteous men without taking him as an Imam, the mentality that believes in the different religions, and the modernist mentalities that are varied in their ways of thinking.
From that starting point, development is possible at the formal levels that address all tastes and attract varied eyes through various artistic works such as acting, theater, chanting and documentary films, with a distinctive and captivating style of presentation. An important development is also in the aspect of engaging all levels and cultures from multiple angles, such as politics, rights, society, economics, thought, doctrine and others. In this aspect the type of discourse and the type of style used to convey the idea should be safeguarded, for the exhortative style that affects the souls of devotees differs from the academic style that addresses minds and engages in dialogue with divergent ideas.
With this effort, the Husayni discourse in satellite media can advance, stand out and have influence over the widest possible area, for Imam al-Husayn is a light, and light can illuminate all human beings. We ask Allah the Exalted to grant us success through Imam al-Husayn (a), and to rescue humanity from its torments by the light of Imam al-Husayn (a).
