Islam( In The Eyes Of Western Media)

ISLAM

(THROUGH THE EYES OF WESTERN MEDIA)

By

Jasmine Bhangoo

The worldwide Islamic revival of the 1970s and the 11 September 2001 attacks

on the United States have prompted many to predict that the two cultures are

on a major collision course. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the

West. Nevertheless, the West

has many stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam that are due to the

media, prejudice, and ignorance. Islam is often looked upon as a

"extremist", "terrorist", or "fundamental" religion. Many people hate Islam

and do not want to acknowledge its true teachings. In many cases, the

media's reports about Islam are incorrect due to ignorance. This is one of

the reasons why the West often hates Islam. In contrast to what many

Westerners think of Islam, Islam is a peaceful religion, which does not

promote any forms of uncalled for fighting or "terrorist" actions.

Today, the West, with little or no understanding of Islamic history, has

identified

a new enemy, "a new demon that has replaced the Red menace of the Cold war,

i.e., radical Islam" (Agha 6). This "radical Islam", a stereotype common to

Western thought, portrays Muslims as fundamentalists or potential

terrorists. Some of these ideas that the Western people have about Islam are

due to the mass media of the West. Reporters who cover the Muslim world

often know very little details about it. The media then develops a distorted

image of Islam that Western culture adopts (Agha 2).

A major factor which contributes to Islamic stereotyping in the West is due

to the media's ignorance of selecting their words that describe Muslims.

Some common names heard or seen in the news about Muslims are "extremist" or

"terrorist". These words are misleading and are mainly anti-Islamic. The

media rarely uses more neutral terms such as "revivalist" or "progressives"

(Hassan 2).

Just for political reasons, the US officials repeatedly claim that the issue

is terrorism, not Islam. On the contrary, it's media, academia and political

analysts never stop presenting Islam as the next "ism" and a replacement of

the "Red Menace." Due to their untiring efforts, every time a terror

strikes, non-Muslims and Muslims alike suspect an Islamic connection.

According to Judith Miller, and Emory Bogle, the disclaimers abound, but a

lingering suspicion about Muslims is getting permanently engraved in the

general views of terrorism, even if other groups are identified as the main

culprits for any particular incident. All we need is to settle the issue

whether it is a systematic, pre-determined effort to somehow undermine Islam

by presenting its followers as stubborn, insensitive, and terrorists, or

such views expressed by Western specialists, and anti-Islam policies framed

by the government officials, are just unlinked coincidences. The West views

Islam as "fundamental" "extremist" or "discriminatory", but all of these

terms have be manipulated, purposely because of biased feelings and

accidentally because of ignorance, by the media to present a negative image

about Islam. Islam is actually a peaceful and fair religion that most often

does not correspond to the media's reports.

The vast majority of the American people are religiously ignorant and they

feel they have no need to find out about the other countries and other

religions. They rely on the selective information that is provided by the

media. The fact that the American media feeds selective information to

society is one of the biggest factors that have contributed to Americans'

prejudices against Islam. The American media likes to tell us about the

negative aspects of Islam. They portray the countries that embrace this

religion in a negative way. For example, when the late Ayatollah Khomeini

gave a fatwa against the British author, Salman Rushdie, more coverage was

given on the fact that he placed a "hit" on this man than when the majority

of Muslims and Muslim countries opposed this fatwa. No one recognized that

Muslim law does not permit a man to be sentenced to death without a trial

and that Islam has no jurisdiction outside the Islamic world (Armstrong

337).

The true images of Muslims, Islam, and Arabs are never taken into account

and that is where the prejudice, hate, and discrimination originate. The

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