Islam and the media

The last few decades have seen a dramatic misunderstanding of the Muslim culture and beliefs related to their religion all over the world. By asking people what they think about when it comes to the words “Muslims” and “Islam”, there are a lot of given answers related to Osama bin Laden, terrorist attacks such as 9/11 and 7/7 bombings, which all portray bad images of this religion. It is the media that distort the representations of Islam and Arab cultures, which will be proved in detail below.

The idea of “Islamophobia” has existed for such a long time. “According to Otterbeck and Bevelander (2006), this term was appeared for the first time in 1918 in French” and was defined as the fear of or aversion to Islam and Muslims (Helbing, 2012). Nonetheless, it is exactly after the series of four coordinated terrorist attacks which happened at September 11th, 2001 (also referred to as 9/11) that have left a great legacy of fear and suspicion in the world. The terrorist attacks in 9/11 as well as related events in London and Madrid attracted a lot of public attention and marked a beginning of a significant rise in using the term “Islamophobia”, spreading it all over the US in both subtle and explicit ways. To say it another way, Islamophobia became an unavoidable part of daily life, ruining totally lives of every single Muslim people.

The media depicted the Muslim as “barbaric people” after the 9/11 tragedy, which means that all Muslims have to put up with a lot of heavy criticism because of crimes that the minority of their religion have committed. Every type of media, either it is the newspaper, TV news or social media posts assumes that all terrorist acts since 9/11 are conducted by Muslim extremists. As a result, the media provides readers and viewers with distorted images of the religion of Muslim. An article from The Guardian (2005) writes that “the terms Islamic or Muslim are linked to extremism, militant, jihads as if they belonged together inextricably and naturally (Muslim extremist, Islamic terror, Islamic war, the Muslim time bomb)”. Furthermore, the motive of the media seems to “favor irresponsible journalism that does not acknowledge the negative impact that such a focus has on moderate Muslims” and “exploits anti-Muslim feelings” with plenty of falsified reports and references (Kabir, 2006).

There is a lot of evidence to demonstrate how the media has set stereotypes and false facts about the images of Islam in numerous ways, especially in America. A typical example is “The Rush Limbaugh Show”, the most popular radio talk show in the US. Rush Limbaugh, the host of this show, takes advantage of his greatly influential radio show to raise a question that whether President Barack Obama is a Muslim or not. Along with Limbaugh, “The Sean Hannity Show” casts doubt on President Obama’s religious identity. Also, “The Savage Nation” which is hosted by Mike Savage constructed a fallacious argument that “President Obama could be a secret Muslim” (Ali, 2011). All of such claims easily make people in the US assume that President Obama’s religion is Muslim.

Fox News, the American satellite television news channel which has one of the most prominent megaphones in TV news, also “uses this megaphone to amplify anti-Muslim” (Ali, 2011). As a result, there is a recent poll illustrating that American citizens “who most trust Fox News” tend to believe that “investigating Muslim extremism is a good idea” and “Rep. Peter King’s congressional hearings on Muslim radicalization were a good idea” (Ali, 2011).

Not only in the US, but “Islamophobia” has also been on the rise in Europe due to media distortion. Geert Wilders, a well-known Dutch politician can be a significant example for those who raise anti-Muslim sentiments. According to McCloud (2013), Wilders has consistently sent warnings about the Islamisation of the Netherlands and argues that Islam is a violent faith and that extremists are simply adhering to their tradition. The controversial film Fitna has come as evidence of these views. Also, the British newspaper industry always presents that “white English groups are more approving”, while Muslims are taken as “the instigators of their own problems” (Abbas, 2001). Muslims’ images are created as a threat to society. Thus, readers gradually become familiarized with existing cultural frameworks such as “Mad Mullahs”, “Iranian Terrorists”, or “Mad Dog Gadaffi”.

We can also take Princess Jasmine, a Disney character in a cartoon named Aladdin as a stereotype that the media successfully created. In the movie, Jasmine’s dresses are all far too sexy and inappropriate, appearing to be the hottest object that all men desire. Rather than possessing the princess-like qualities, every other Disney princess has such as royalty and nobility, she does depict an exact image of a “harem woman” or a sexual product.

Another typical example giving negative portrayals of Muslim and Arab people in Western media is Ali Baba, a blockbuster cartoon. The Arab man Ali Baba, which is also the main character, gains certain notoriety as “the mad dog of the desert.” He is told to be willing to commit thievery and does everything to satisfy his own greed. His reputation includes nothing on "his thoughtful, wise, generous, altruistic intentions as he is famous for his mean, deceptive, spiteful gluttonous inclination” (Ridouani, 2011). Therefore, the more media products such as this cartoon are launched, the more persistent the negative stereotype about Muslims among everybody will be.

In conclusion, the media does build misleading images of Islam and Arab culture around the world. News updated on various digital platforms does not stop providing distorted facts. TV shows and movies do not stop constructing negative stereotypes. And people do not stop reading and watching those sources, gradually raising more and more Islamophobic attitudes towards innocent Muslims. Hence, it may take a long time to debunk this stereotype about Muslim people that the media has formed. The lives of Muslims and Islams are bound to deteriorate until everyone decides to see the world with their eyes, not the eyes of the media.