Islam: suppressor of women, enemy of Western nations, and breeder of terrorists. The West has many stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam that are due to the media, prejudice, and ignorance. Islam is often seen as an "extremist" or "terrorist" religion. Often, the media's reports about Islam are incorrect due to ignorance or not wanting to acknowledge its true teachings. This is one of the reasons why Westerners are often wary of Muslims. In contrast to what the media portrays, Islam is a peaceful religion, which does not promote violence or terrorism.
Islamic stereotypes are not new to Western culture. Problems can be traced back to the time of the Crusades, when Christians and Muslims were vying for control of Jerusalem. At that time, the spread of Ottoman and Moorish control in Europe started to threaten the position of the Christian Church and the ruling class. The governments, churches, and other authorities in the West then became involved in making sure that negative images were presented about Islam in order to discourage converts and sympathizers.
Today, radical Islam is identified as the new enemy of the West, "a new demon that has replaced the Red menace of the Cold war" (Agha 6). Radical Islam, a stereotype common to Western thought, portrays Muslims as potential terrorists. It is also a common stereotype that Islam is strictly an Arabic religion, or rather, that all Arabs are Muslims. Muslims justifiably worry that the terrorist activities of groups which identify themselves as Muslim have biased public opinion against all followers of Islam. The term "Muslim terrorist" is incorrect, they say, because anyone who adheres to the principles of Islam could not be a terrorist. In addition, it should be not...
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...tian farmer quoted in the Washington Post, "America has killed thousands of Iraqi children," said Hassan, 34, ... "They want to destroy Islam as a religion."
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On September 11, 2001, since the terrorist attacks, many American Muslims have been stereotyped negatively in the United States. Salma, a Muslim woman, says that the way Muslims have been recognized in the media has played a big role in the antagonism directed at her. “I don’t know how many times I heard my classmates accuse me of being al-Qaeda or a terrorist” (Mayton 2013). Salma, along with other Muslims, even after a decade, are still struggling with trying to find their “American” and “Islamic” identities, while facing verbal attacks for their ethnicity. Too often, the general Muslim population gets lumped in with the immoral acts of a few because of the lack of knowledge about their culture.
Has the New York Times negatively stereotyped Arab Muslims for the past forty years? The goal of this research project is to reveal the negative stereotypes directed towards Arab Muslims in the New York Times. The critical focus of the research is the consistency of the negative stereotypes. The underlying focus is what theoretical and historical effects result from the negative stereotypes.
The misrepresentation of Arabs and Muslims is sometimes flagrant in American newspaper articles. There is often a tendency to attribute other signifiers to the term “Arab. This term is usually, substituted with the term “Muslim.” Richard Cohen, a journalist from The Washington Post epitomizes the deliberate mixing of the terms “Arab” and “Muslims.” He intentionally amalgamates those terms with terrorism; thus, Arabs, Muslims and terrorist become synonymous. Cohen states that “one hundred percent of the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 mass murder were Arabs. Their accomplices, if any, were probably Arabs too, or at least Muslims. Ethnicity and religion are the very basis of their movement.” (Ibish 124)
Sachs, S, (2003). A Nation at War: Mideast Coverage; Arab Media Portray War as Killing Field. New York Times.
Propaganda produced in the Arab world against the United States and the Western world, alongside the incitement and propaganda aimed against Israel, the Zionist movement and the Jewish people. Among those participating in the anti-American incitement and propaganda are Arab regimes, as well as the media and the education systems throughout the various Arab countries. This mechanism of incitement and propaganda reflects to a large extent the actual "mood" of hostility towards the United States and the entire Western world, prevalent within the Arab and Muslim society. Feelings of hostility are cultivated by terrorism-supporting countries with explicitly anti-American policies, such as Syria and Iran, as well as by Islamic movements, left-wing organizations and various "popular fronts". The more Western-oriented Arab countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan generally tolerate the existence of the incitement and propaganda system, though they at times attempt to limit its impact, lest it should affect their relations with the United States (Ayubi, Nazih, 1999). With the emergence of Islam in the seventh century, conflict immediately emerged between Muslims and Christians. Both religions had periods where its followers were inspired with a mood of hatred and violence (Spencer, H, 1998). Therefore, this hatred led to the rejection of Western civilization, since the West was evil and Westerners were enemies of God. God had enemies and needed human help in order to overthrow them. This was the dualism, which was inherent in Islam. Most people in the United States and more generally in the Western world find it impossible to understand the motives and purposes that drove the perpetrators of these crimes, those who sent them and ...
Islam is portrayed and is commonly accepted as the most violent and largest direct threat to the West. This is a generalization made by most of the West, but it is not particularly the West or the Islamic people’s fault. There is constant turmoil in Islamic countries in the Middle East and these conflicts are what make the news in the West. The only representation in the media that the Islamic nation gets is that of war. Though most Islamic people are not violent, the select few that do participate in terrorist groups give the rest of the Islam nation a bad image.
Islam in America has historically been misunderstood, and this is due to the misconception of culture and religion as well as lack of education and incorrect portrayal in the media, which gives a skewed idea of Islam. Especially in the United States, Islam has been seen as the “terrorist religion” or a religion for the extremists and a religion in which freedom is not an option. Among the countless misconceptions, the basis of stereotypes by Americans is due to the mix up between religion and culture. Furthermore, the media only fuels fire to these misunderstandings and lack of factual information about Islam causing Americans to lash out on American Muslims without reason.
Muslims have been facing propaganda by media of the western world since many decades. Western media spreads any negative incident in which Muslims are involved very quickly. Many people have developed such an understanding due to this stigmatization that they normally think of terrorism, violence and other extreme things when they hear about Islam and Muslims. One major incident behind such stigmatization is the 9/11 attacks on America.
Terrorism has been around for centuries and religion-based violence has been around just as long. (Hoffman, 2). The violence was never referred to as terrorism though. Only up to the nineteenth century has religion been able to justify terrorism (Hoffman, 2). Since then, religious terrorism became motivated and inspired by the ideological view (Hoffman, 3). Therefore, it has turned against the main focus of religion and more towards the views of the extremist and what is happening politically (Winchester, 4).
In the essay, the writer acknowledges the misunderstandings that come from media images by explaining the contrasts between these images and the teachings of the faith to support her claim that fear is the reason for this misconception. The conception that many people have of Muslims is that they are terrorists, anti-Semites, and fanatics. This conception exsists because television news and newspapers support that stereotype. The broadcast of such stereotypes encourages fear and accusations of the Islamic relegion's teachings. The writer explains that Islam teaches peace, tolerance, and equality. She further states that Muslims shown in the media have violated these teachings ...
A lot of people believe that Muslims, Islam, and/or the Holy Quran encourages killing, fighting, and terrorism. Events such as the 9/11 attack in the United States, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and conflicts in the Middle East causes the media to label Muslims as terrorists. When a specific group of people cause violence to another group it is categorized as ‘hate crime’, but if a Muslim does the same act, the media immediately labels it as ‘terrorism’ (Frater, 2009). As a matter of fact, regarding to the attacks of the mosques in Israel, the media did not use the acts to victimize or stereotype Judaism. Moreover, some extremist groups use Islam as a tactic to gain followers even though a lot of their practices go against the teachings of the Quran. A person would not be considered a Muslim if they spread fear or terrorize others. The Quran clearly states, “You shall not take life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law.” (Quran, 6:151). Islam is against any force or violence towards another person. Often the word ‘Jihad’ is taken out of context by violent militants; it means to strive or struggle for the sake of ones’ self improvement with respect to their spirituality. Religious and political groups use Jihad to justify ...
After 9/11 has induced negative attitudes towards Muslim peoples who tend to be strongly associated with any act of terrorism. The media has played a colossal role in developing such negative association wherein it constantly portrays Muslim people in combination with violent terrorist acts. It does so in a way that they both go hand-and-hand. In other words, it has made it as though the Islamic religion is synonymous with terrorism. The media has perpetuated Muslim stereotypes over the years that followed the 9/11 incident. Because of this, society has developed, and still has developed, this prejudiced mindset about the Islamic religion and the Muslim communities around the world. People immediately assume that any violent act being depicted through the media is the direct result of Muslims. They automatically generate this idea that the act was performed by a Muslim terrorist even when they were not involved whatsoever. Regardless of whether it was true or not, Islamic religion and its Muslim adherents are at the top of societies’ agenda just waiting for the evidence to be generated so that they can then safely blame them for such world affairs. Again, this has led to the attack on the Islamic religion itself wherein people have come to postulate Islam as an act of oppression, violence and hatred towards non-Muslims. Anti-Muslim sentiments and campaigns have resulted from such misinformation the media has been generating and feeding its viewers.
Religion and the Media In the world we live in today people have revolutionized the image of religion, so that it is now regarded as a pastime instead of solely. being about God and His people. In today's world media has evolved to be much more. more powerful than religion, and therefore some say that media is taken.
Muslim, ever wonder what this word really means? Who is classified as Muslim? Someone that is Muslim is not a terrorist, nor a bad person. They are humans. Someone that is a Muslim only has an Islamic belief. This word originated in Arabia where this whole culture developed (BBC “Islam”). Islam followers, or Muslims, were introduced to their culture from the Prophet Muhammad (BBC “Islam”). The word Islam comes up very often, but who knows what it means? It is said to be the “submission to the will of God (BBC “Islam”).” Majority of the U.S. population today see Muslims as bad people only because a certain group attacked the United States. We, as a whole, discriminate today towards Muslims and any human with an Islamic background.
Stahl, J. (2004). Islamic Fundamentalists Adept at Using Media, Analysts say. CNSNews.com Cybercast News Service. (on-line)