Dhruv Rathee,a Germany based YouTuber of Indian origin, released a video [https://youtu.be/NwQvIFnMn0A] explaining Abrahamic religions viz. Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Though the topic was Abrahamic religion, he went into Hinduism too. As a political analyst, his job was just to present facts regarding these religions based on texts and their interpretations but he went down in his video, defending particular religions. He misrepresented facts about Islam in many sentences he said. He mixed history of Judaism and Christianity regarding prophets’ history with Islam and in doing so confused the audience which version of history is coming from which faith and made it look like Islam also believes in theological stance of those of Christianity and Judaism regarding prophets’ history.
He did a commendable job in explaining certain similarities, especially when he said that propagandists malign these religions by cherry-picking verses, completely ignoring the contexts. And this happens to all faiths. @BaniAdam013 brought Dhruv Ratheeto attention on his upload and tweeted: “Hey @dhruv_rathee the video title says reality of Qur’an and Bible but 70% of the time you talked about bible (sic), Judaism and other religions and 20% of time in defending idol worship in Hinduism even though you are Atheist ???? and remaining 10% in misrepresentation of Qur’an.”
A similar tweet came from a mufti based inthe United States. What Dhruv should literally have done is: He should have sat down with an Islamic scholar and discussed the beliefs and how it views history of prophets and how it defines terms like ‘Kafir’.
Kafir, in my opinion, is the one who acknowledges the fact that the Qur’ān can be from God alone and it can’t be manmade due to its various miraculous nature and in spite of it rejects this truth as was the case of Quraysh in Makkah when we study the Prophet’s biographyas well as theQur’ān. However, Dhruv explained the meaning of Kafir as someone who is just an atheist.
In his attempt on trying to prove all religions are similar, he forcefully tried mixing theologies of Abrahamic Religions and made complete mess on their stands. He defended the criticism Islamic theology has on idol worshipping but in doing so he misinterpreted the Islamic notion on How God is? And how He couldn’t be compared with any shape or form. Dhruv is an atheist and was a Hindu earlier. The problem with the YouTuber is, he doesn’t read books and doesn’t study sufficiently before making his report. It appears he gathers knowledge based on Googling be it on politics, history and in this case on religions. Smile to Jannah Channel [https://youtu.be/tz9lfPbMPaw] and a YouTuber based in the United Kingdom did try responding to Dhruv’s mistakes in his video.
Dhruv Rathee is a YouTuber, who uploads videos on political analysis, technological updates, demographics, contemporary issues and has become one of the world’s most watched YouTuber especially in Indian context. His critics argue that his political opinions are inclined to that of AAP’s political ideology.
Today the generation is moving abundantly on such platforms, expressing their political, ideological and religious insights. Though the Indian Muslim community does have certain channels but their popularity is lower. They may not lack expertise in knowledge but they might lack expertise in speaking in the tone of today’s generation, the elite podcast system and sufficient studio material to shoot professional videos to upload on such platforms.
The community must look into the matter to influence viewers who are in masses at such platforms and prepare such talents. When I found Dhruv misinterpreting Islamic theological stances and we had none from the Indian Muslim community to respond to and clarify our viewpoint, I realised we need such YouTubers at this level who could respond to such uploads. Isn’t it a wakeup call to look into such a platform which is the future world of information, as estimated by some.