How has the media portrayed Islam in societies around the world?

It’s difficult to explain a wide topic such as the media’s portrayal of Islam and the misconceptions surrounding it. The question is about the portrayal of Islam in the media. Nothing hurts the perception of Islam more than the media’s smearing and mud-slinging. People listen to the media, and then criticize a whole religion based on what they see and hear. That’s merely the ignorance aspect. At the same time, as a Muslim it is my responsibility, mine, not all Muslims together, but every person individually to clear the misconceptions and ignorance. Everyone has their own identity, whether cultural or religious. I identify with my culture as a Muslim first then as an Arab. Religion is looked down upon in societies today because it is considered troublesome and opposing to the way people view the world today. Muslims get the media’s attention because they strictly follow the religion; however, it’s not what many focus on, that’s just scratching the surface.

Over the years we saw the events of 9/11 and the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, which led up to the war of Afghanistan, even worse, the war of Iraq and Sadam Hussein’s rebellion; which led to the rebellion of many Muslims going into many separate groups, radical and some that are indeed real Jihadists in the sense that they are fighting in the sake of Allah. The west in general dominated in media and news coverage. That dominance has been taken over to manipulate and put unethical and negative ideas about Islam and Muslims. There is one crucial event that brought the media’s attention to Islam, and that’s 9/11. The one event, that no matter who you ask they will go back to, and when someone is asked about Islam, the first thing that comes to them is terrorism, violence, and o...

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... every new outlet wants to debate about. This is mainly because of the fact not everything the media says about Islam is true. To say the least, most things said in the media are not true, and that’s genuine. People can let the media limit their opinions, they can also choose to block out everything going on in the world, which raises the issue of a different type of obliviousness. If people listen to the media the way they did with Islam and kept believing everything they hear we’ll live in a world of chaos. It may vary from topic to another what effect the media has. With a strong topic that’s wide and explicit like the media on Islam reactions are unbelievable. It’s clear enough that Islam vastly, in its core values and teachings, is unfortunately misconstrued. Islam is given huge attention as well, and with the media, it’s full of controversy and notoriousness.