The Manipulators of Truths
A Reading of the Role of Misleading Media in Inverting the Husayni Truths
His Eminence Shaykh Yasir al-Salih*
Whoever studies the revolution of Imam al-Husayn (a) and its extension through history must be stirred by an important question, namely: how is it that the Umma which had only just been seeing the Prophet (s) carrying al-Husayn (a) on his shoulder and saying: (Allah loves whoever loves Husayn)—how did it turn against him? And forsake him, and indeed kill him and take his women captive? And how were the Umayyads able to spread false rumors such as: that al-Husayn was killed by the sword of his grandfather?.. Then how have the truths been concealed, up to our present day, from a large segment of people?
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Pausing at such questions leads us to in-depth research concerning a number of political, social and cultural issues that are related to the movement of society and those who lead it. Perhaps in answering them we find various aspects, but there is one very important aspect and dimension that has the lion's share of influence and of the inversion of truths, and this dimension calls on us to pause at it, to study it in depth and to analyze its various particulars .. It is the negative media aspect, which is given the name media deception.
The Dominance of the Media and Its Influential Role:
The media is not, as some imagine, merely a newspaper published here or a news item spread there; rather, it is something much bigger than that. It is a set of operations that influence the movement of society and lead to the shaping of a public opinion with a direction that is drawn up and determined in advance. It works to change the constants held by public opinion, to draw up new directions that serve the policies of the programmers of the media, to structure minds and build particular patterns of thinking among the targeted masses, and consequently to drive them toward a behavior contrary to what they originally wanted to do—indeed, that may perhaps be contrary to their interest .. (Gore Vidal) says: “The terrifying genius of the American media and political elite has lain, from the beginning, in its ability to persuade the people to vote against their most important interests.” Likewise (McQuail), the sociologist specializing in media communications, says: “.. Politics is a suitable example for studying the influence of the media, for the media may have influenced not only the political opinions of the individual, but also the way in which politics is conducted and the way its main activities are organized.” From here comes the importance of the media, as it is a direct means of influencing human minds and controlling them, and consequently determining their behaviors and their reactions, regardless of whether this control is positive or negative control.
Methods of Colonizing Human Beings:
Researchers and psychologists say that there are several methods through which human beings can be controlled and pushed toward carrying out particular behaviors that are often contrary to their desires and their interests; perhaps the most important of these methods are:
1- Intimidation and spreading terror: This is a method that leads the individual to blind obedience, out of fear for his interest at times, or for his life at other times; this method is most often used by rulers who rule with iron and fire.
2- Enticement with money and interests: This method, unlike the previous one, relies on temptation and enticement: it offers people benefits, whether material benefits in kind or moral benefits, in return for their carrying out particular acts.
3- Deceiving minds: This is the most dangerous of the methods of control, since it targets the mind and gains control over it in a way that is not felt; among its dangerous results is that it secures a continuous dominance over minds without the human being feeling it. In this method—unlike the two previous methods—the person is, most of the time, unaware that he is being duped and led without his feeling it; for “deception is successful when the deceived feel that things are as they are from the natural and inevitable point of view .. and in order for deception to perform its role with greater effectiveness, the evidence of its existence must be concealed .. ,” as (Herbert I. Schiller) says in his book The Mind Managers.
By observing these three categories, we see that one of the three methods applies to those who came to Karbala to fight Imam al-Husayn (a): there were those who came out of fear of Yazid and his violence, there were those who came out of greed for money and position, and there was a third category, and they are the deceived .
Media Deception.. Manipulation of Truths:
Media deception is a set of systematic operations for influencing public opinion, or a group of people, with the intention of reprogramming their minds and directing them toward a particular political, social or cultural goal, and consequently creating a reality that is fake, erroneous and sufficiently convincing; and that is with the aim of making the recipient fall into error while he is thinking correctly. Among the most important rules of deception is its acquiring the appearance of truthfulness and winning the trust of the recipient who is to be convinced. Here His Eminence the religious authority (marjaʿ) Grand Ayatollah Sayed Muhammad Taqi al-Modarresi (may his shadow endure), in his book al-Tarikh al-Islami, points to the efforts that are expended to conceal the truths of history, to falsify it and fragment it, and to prevent people from understanding history soundly; and he calls for a new reading of history that tries to draw history from its correct sources and to link its events with one another.
The deceivers in the media usually set about establishing a “media dictionary of terms” suited to the stage and to the goals that have been set; therefore the terms are formulated precisely and carved in a way that achieves the aims and goals of invading minds and hearts, blinding public opinion and directing it to the desired strategic aim; and work is done to promote these terms widely, so that after a while they become an accomplished fact that influences people's decision-making. From here it becomes clear to us that deception is based on influencing the mind, regardless of whether a scientific or an emotional method of influence is adopted.
Deception is resorted to only in societies distinguished by movement, whether social, political or cultural; there is no need to deceive peoples who are submissive and content with their reality.. “For rulers resort to media deception only when the people begin to emerge—even if in a crude form—as a social will in the course of the historical process; before that, there is no deception—in the precise sense of the word—rather, we find total repression. For there is no necessity there to deceive the oppressed when they are submerged up to their ears in the misery of reality,” as (Paulo Freire) says
Media Deception and the Shaping of Society's Awareness:
Shaping the awareness of societies is a basic pillar for producing the movement of society. If the unjust ruler is able to produce a societal awareness that holds back from supporting the truth, he obtains as a result a society in which each one makes the other cowardly, whose members are slack in rising up and sink heavily to the ground, in the Qurʾanic expression. But if the revolutionaries and the free are able to produce a sound awareness in society, they are able to reap an aware social movement in which the members of society bear their responsibilities without slackness or excuse-making .
Therefore, shaping a deviant awareness in society is considered one of the most important goals of the deceivers; researchers and scholars have set about laying down a set of theories and foundations that help in shaping society's awareness, and here we mention two techniques for shaping awareness that (Herbert I. Schiller) mentions in his book The Mind Managers:
1- Fragmentation as a form of communication:
The technique of fragmentation is based on confining events and incidents within small foci and cutting their connections with the rest of the events, which makes the recipient deal with each event as an entity independent in itself, without searching for the roots and causes that led to its occurrence, or searching for the results that may follow from it. Therefore the makers of media today set about broadcasting a large set of news items scattered here and there, focusing on the news item as a news item without touching upon any of its dimensions. For example: when news of an explosion in some country is presented, only the descriptive state of the news is touched upon ( the number of dead, the place of the explosion, ... and so on) without touching upon the real causes that lead to the outbreak of conflict in societies, for example.
“One of the distinguishing features of repressive (deceptive) cultural action is the emphasis on the view that confines problems within foci instead of seeing them as dimensions of a single whole,” as (Paulo Freire) says. Here we notice many attempts to fragment the Husayni revolution and to deal with it as scattered parts with no interconnection among them—indeed, working to sever the existing interconnection between the revolution of Imam al-Husayn (a) and the heavenly messages, and to abolish the idea that the Husayni revolution is a natural extension of the call of the Prophet (s). This leads to isolating each event in the revolution in a specific corner and not allowing people to link the events with one another, whether the events that preceded the battle or the events that followed the revolution. Here we give several examples:
- · Promoting, historically, the claim that the Husayni revolution is connected with a temporary struggle for power between Imam al-Husayn (a) and Yazid ibn Muʿawiya, and that Imam al-Husayn (a) wanted to recover the power that was his right, and that this led to the occurrence of a small war in the wake of which al-Husayn (a) and those with him were killed, and rule remained with Yazid. This is what is promoted in the history books taught in schools and universities (and this is what I have seen in a number of history books of the Arab countries), so it is said: The revolution of Imam al-Husayn (a) is like the rest of the movements scattered here and there whose leaders aim to reach power. For that reason we see that Imam al-Husayn (a) paid great attention to defining the goals of his uprising and his revolution, as a preemptive strike against whoever tries to divert the revolution from its correct course; and perhaps his (a) words ( I did not go forth out of insolence nor out of arrogance, but I went forth only to seek reform in the Umma of my grandfather ...) are among the clearest of his words that show the goals of his revolution.
- · The media's treatment, in contemporary times, of ʿAshura as a historical commemoration connected with a small group of human beings scattered here and there, who commemorate it once a year like the other occasions that human societies commemorate, with all their different customs and traditions—without touching upon the dimensions of this commemoration and the reasons for holding fast to the annual commemoration, and keeping away from many of the basic matters, occupying public opinion with a number of small details and concealing the great truths that stand behind this great annual commemoration.
- · Occupying people with small details and keeping them away from the deep content of the revolution: people become occupied, for example, with a discussion about the permissibility of some rite and its prohibition, or with a dispute about the place where the mourning is held or the kind of food served, and so on, keeping away from the great contents of this revolution; so they become occupied with the husks and leave the kernel.
2- The immediacy of media follow-up:
This is one of the important techniques in shaping awareness, where the politicians of the media set about creating a general societal culture that focuses on the importance of the immediate follow-up of knowledge and news, without attention to details, and then opening the field to the flow of a great torrent of information characterized by acceleration, which puts the recipient in a state of bewilderment, making his reaction delayed or nonexistent. “This instantaneous, momentary character helps increase the deceptive power of the media apparatuses, since media material that is quickly fleeting leaves behind it no lasting or fixed structure.”
“Immediacy—which means recording events and commenting on them as soon as they occur—is closely linked to the process of fragmentation; indeed, it in fact constitutes a necessary element among the elements of its existence.” Thus events are turned into commodities that are sold, and the recipient must obtain the commodity fresh before it becomes stale news .. The danger in this kind of promotion lies in the fact that the recipient—as a result of the flowing torrent of information—does not have sufficient time for analysis, for dealing with events and for recording positions, and the events remain in his mind as scattered pieces with no link between them at all . Among the examples of that:
- · Historically, we see that the Umayyad party tried to occupy people with the multiplicity of events in the battle of Karbala and their rapid succession: after the killing of Imam al-Husayn (a) and his companions, it immediately tried to move on to another event, namely parading the processions of the captives through the cities, and occupying people with contrived festivities, which is what is called (the theory of selective influence); and then occupying people with other great events after the battle of Karbala, such as the storming of Medina and the striking of the Kaaba, in an attempt on their part to cover up a great event such as the killing of Imam al-Husayn (a)
Methods of Media Deception:
Because deception works to invert and falsify truths and tries to control minds, it is not an easy process; hence we see that the practitioners of media deception search for the best methods that will bring them to their desired goals, and they try to choose the most successful method with every society and every time. We will try to touch upon some of the methods used in media deception:
1- Spreading rumors: A rumor is defined—as in the Encyclopedia of Psychology— as a news item, story or event that people pass on to one another without scrutiny or verification of its truth, and it is most often exaggerated by being magnified. And because people usually love to spread news and pass it on, spreading rumors is an easy matter; it is a common method, especially during wars. We see that the enemies of al-Husayn (a) spread a number of rumors, whether during the revolution or after it, among them:
- · Spreading word of the coming of the vast army of al-Sham to Kufa during the period when Muslim ibn ʿAqil was there and the people had rallied around him; this rumor—together with a number of other methods—bore fruit in driving people away from Muslim ibn ʿAqil, and consequently in his isolation and killing by the Umayyads.
- · Spreading false reports directly affecting Imam al-Husayn (a), such as that the Imam (a) did not pray, just as they had earlier spread about his father, Imam ʿAli (a), that he did not establish prayer—to the point that when he was killed in the prayer niche (miḥrāb), people asked: And did ʿAli (a) pray?? ..
- · And in our present time, a number of rumors have been spread concerning the Shiʿa and their commemoration of ʿAshura, in an attempt to belittle them and this commemoration .
2- Lying and distortion: Lying is speech's contradicting reality, and distortion is altering and changing. At times the deceiver sets about fabricating an event that has no existence, and this is one of the kinds of lying; and at times he resorts to an existing event and alters and changes it in a way that changes the meaning, and this is one of the kinds of distortion. Distortion is considered more dangerous than lying, since a lie may be exposed because it has no basis in truth, whereas distortion relies on an existing event or saying in which only a change has occurred, which leads to confusion and muddle in the mind of the recipient, so that he is unable to know the truth. Among the examples of lying and distortion:
- · Distorting a number of Prophetic hadiths that praise the Ahl al-Bayt (a) and attributing their merits to others, in addition to fabricating hadiths that have no basis in truth, such as the hadiths that were forged in the name of the Prophet (s) and that make obedience to the one in authority obligatory, whether he is righteous or a profligate, in an attempt to cover up the errors of the Banu Umayya and to criminalize whoever tries to rise up against them. Thus they tried to brand Imam al-Husayn with a number of accusations relying on these fabricated hadiths, such as that al-Husayn (a) was a rebel (khārijī) and was killed by the sword of his grandfather (s). Ibn Taymiyya says: “Al-Husayn, by this revolution of his, brought about sedition (fitna) in the Umma of Islam by his going out from obedience to the one in authority over the Muslims” .
- · Exonerating Yazid of the blood of Imam al-Husayn (a): Ibn Taymiyya says: “Yazid ibn Muʿawiya did not order the killing of al-Husayn, by the agreement of the transmitters of reports; rather, he wrote to Ibn Ziyad that he should keep him from the governorship of Iraq.”
3- Blackout: This is concealment and covering up, and it is one of the common methods of deception, since the deceivers set about concealing the truths from the public so that they are not influenced by them, in an attempt to escape the effects that would be expected if people knew these truths. Among the examples of that:
- · The agreement of the Arab channels not to cover the rites of the Arbaʿin of Imam al-Husayn (a), after the great stir that occurred at the Arbaʿin that came after the fall of the tyrant Saddam, and the great effect it left in the souls and minds of millions; this is what pushed these channels to take a decision to impose a blackout and not to broadcast anything connected with the commemoration of Imam al-Husayn (a), except that from time to time they are compelled to broadcast in the case of incidents that occur, such as explosions.
- · Concealing many of the truths of history—especially those connected with the revolution of Imam al-Husayn (a)—from the public, and concealing the crimes of Yazid and the Banu Umayya.
4- Manipulating words: This is one of the important methods, especially in our present time. By it we mean formulating particular media words that express events that have occurred, and entering them into the dictionary of terms; these words mostly carry negative shades, or the deceivers may set about manipulating words and formulating them to convey false messages. Among the examples of that:
- · Manipulating news headlines: This is a common method through which each party tries to highlight what it wants to highlight and conceal what it wants to conceal, in addition to conveying the message it believes in. Among the examples of that is what news agencies usually publish about the commemoration of ʿAshura, as they deliberately publish figures far lower than reality and confine it to particular countries such as Iraq and Iran. The examples of that are many; among them is what the al-Arabiya channel published a few days ago about the commemoration of ʿAshura in Bahrain under the headline: “Shiʿi Bahrainis Import Grief and Weeping from Iraq,” so as to suggest to the recipient, through the headline, that the commemoration of ʿAshura is something alien to the people of Bahrain and that the commemoration is confined to Iraq—in a failed attempt to reduce the scale of the commemoration of ʿAshura in the world in general and in Bahrain in particular.
Passivity.. The Most Important Goal of Deception:
When deception succeeds in a society, individual and social passivity spreads in it; and passivity is “a state of inertia that impedes action .. ,” and it pushes the individual or society into a state of rejecting change and development, and spreads a state of justifying everything with the aim of escaping from bearing responsibility; and “passivity reinforces and confirms the maintenance of the existing situation, and passivity feeds on itself, destroying the capacity for social action that could change the conditions that limit human achievement” .
This kind of passivity leads to paralysis in society and hinders its progress or its development in the various fields of life, whether scientific and cultural, or even political. The enemies of the Husayni revolution have tried to work with all their weight to spread the state of passivity and to try to keep people away from a true connection with the concepts and values of the Husayni revolution, which would lead to bringing about a sweeping revolution on all levels and in all areas of life, if people held fast to the values of the Husayni revolution.
Confronting Media Deception:
The physical law laid down by Newton says: “For every action there is a reaction equal to it in magnitude and opposite to it in direction.” This law can be applied in many areas of life; and here, in the matter of the media deception concerning the Husayni revolution, in order for us to be able to confront the fierce onslaught and the programmed policies working to deceive public opinion, we must have, at the very least, an action that matches the action carried out by the deceivers, if not more. Therefore what is required of the Islamic Umma today is that it bring about a great media renaissance that relies on reason and makes use of all the available media and advanced technologies, to reach the largest possible segment and to convey the Husayni cause to the world pure and clear, far from forgery, distortion and deception. This requires the joining of efforts of all the members of the Umma—scholars, intellectuals, active cadres of the Mission and merchants, in addition to the general public—so that we may carry the torch of the Husayni light to the whole world and protect this torch from attempts to extinguish its light.
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A religious scholar from Bahrain.
