It seems to be that whenever there is a news story regarding
religion, the content is of scandal or judgement. For instance, the sex
scandals regarding the Catholic Church and the hate-crimes committed to people
of the Islamic faith following the terrorist attacks that occurred on the 11th
of September 2001. It appears to be a rare occurrence that the general public
are curious in religious affairs unless there is some form of event or issue
behind the storyline. Therefore, in retrospect, when looking at the way Islam
has been represented in the media over the past few years it is apparent that “Islam
is usually treated negatively and is often associated with terrorism, war,
fundamentalism and the repression of women” (Hopkins, 2008, p. 43) . It is crucial to
understand that all media has a sense of purpose and furthermore, has a
significant bias or angle from which they are trying to make clear to the
readers. Thus with this understanding all readers need to ensure that they
acknowledge that the information in which they are being presented in whatever
form of media it will be, in regards to Muslim activity has been “constructed
from a marginal knowledge of the Muslim world; which furthermore presents a
negative view of that world; this narrow view has rarely been balanced by
representations of the normal, stable, social existence experienced by the vast
majority of Muslims’” (Hopkins, 2008, p. 43) . Moreover, the angle
or bias in which the public receive are often very selective and one sided,
thus caution must be evident in order to ensure that a misrepresentation of an
entire religious community does not occur.
As with anything in life, no two people are the same, people
don’t practice their faith in the same way or even to the same degree of
intensity; therefore to pigeon hole an entire religious group through negative
portrayals in the media, does not do the entire faith and its followers any
justice. Prime examples of these ignorant and generalised groupings are that of
the hate crimes surrounding the Islamic community following the events of 9/11.
Additionally the “whole interpretive frame in the West surrounding the
September 11 events has been one of a binary polarization, between the West and
Islam: the West associated with civilizational values and Islam with violence
against it” (Hopkins, 2008, p. 46) . Subsequent fires at
mosques in the US illustrated to a full extent the complete ignorance and
misunderstanding of how Islam was being perceived. In reaction to the
unjustifiable harm being committed against innocent Muslims following the
terrorist attacks the white house made a deliberate effort to establish that
members of Islam were not to blame for the attacks, but certain individuals. Furthermore,
following the initiative undertaken by the White House public relations team to
encourage Americans to get along with Muslims, the national press quickly
followed suit and felt it appropriate to adjust their angle on the events
concerning those days. In terms of why there is a lingering dislike for Muslims
could have something to do with the fact that the US always appreciates having
something to fight against. For instance, following the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1990, Islam became the global threat that replaced communism as the
enemy of the West (Ibrahim, 2010, p. 112) . Moreover highlighting the need to have a
constant pressure to remain a moral compass for the world and allowing the US
to stand tall as a ‘moral’ country. Despite the fact that American officials
went to great lengths to emphasise that the “war on terror was not a was
against Islam but against the individuals who committed the crimes, there was
some form of a “with us or against us” mentality evident in the President Bush
era (Ibrahim, 2010, p. 121) . Therefore, as a
result of this mentality, despite some conscious efforts being made by members
in the media, there is still an overarching theme of suspiciousness and
curiosity surrounding Islam as a religion, and furthermore, the people that
practice it.
References:
Hopkins, L. (2008). Muslim Turks and anti-Muslim
discourse: The effects of media constructions of 'Islamic' and 'Arabic' in
Australia. Australian Journal of Communication, 41-48.
Ibrahim, D. (2010). The Framing of Islam on Network
News Following the September 11th Attacks. The International Communication
Gazette, 111-125.
No comments:
Post a Comment