Moore et al's (2008), article tells that Muslim men are spoken about more than Muslim women in the media. A limitation of their study is that they do not explain why this is the case. However Poole (2002), offers an explanation of why Muslim women are less accounted for. She suggests that a reason could be that journalists find it difficult to access information on Muslim women as they are less visible in Islam. Not only are women shown less in Islam, they are portrayed more negatively than Muslim men. Afshar and Maynard (2003) assert that the Qur'an has often been misinterpreted leading to discrimination against women. This could lead to the media creating negative stories about them as the Qur'an put forwards some inequalities between …show more content…
Many suggest that what Muslims really want is to impose Sharia law onto Britain. According to the UK Government and Parliament website (2014), during the 2010-2015 coalition government, a petition was put forward to ban Sharia law in the UK. This petition received 21,452 signatures, this demonstrates how there is a fear amongst British society of Islam laws taking over. This can lead to marginalisation as people fear Muslims are trying to impose their way of life on them. Fearful attitudes of a forceful imposition of Sharia law could derive from articles written Journalist such as Woodhouse (2016) of the Sun newspaper. He stated that ' Muslims in the UK are living as they are in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia'. Not only does this homogenous Muslims into one group, but as mentioned in the first section, it makes Muslims seem foreign and non-British which can lead to alienation. As this a recurring theme that presents itself in British newspapers, it can be questioned whether Muslims actually do want Sharia law in Britain. Yet according to the ICM Unlimited report (2015), 77 percent of Muslims do not want to live under Sharia law. As the majority of Muslims do not want to live under Sharia law in Britain, multiple negative stories about them can lead to a moral panic as Muslims as a whole are seen as a threat to 'British
...es and try being a non-Muslim in a Muslim country. The next generation that appears to look Muslim is becoming targets for discrimination and hate crimes. “It scares me that it only took a few radical Muslims to bring down two buildings and we’ve brought hundreds of thousands of them here to the United States, “ an American says (Somali). While many Muslims are making America their new home, it’s all up to them on how to give Muslims a new reputation.
“Islamophobia” was thought to be used commonly during late 1980s in Great Britain as a discriminative word towards Muslim
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.
Instead of just highlighting one perspective on which Islam and Muslims have been misrepresented, this paper will illustrate the different tactics that the media use to misrepresent Muslims as a whole. This aims to serve as an outline for the many effects that the media had on Islam and Muslims after 9/11. The study begins by giving a detailed overview of how agenda setting theory directly relates to the rationale of this paper. Next, it will provide examples of the specific terminology used by the media to influence the perception of Muslims. In addition, it will attempt to contrast the proliferation of hate crimes pertaining to Muslims that took place before and after 9/11. Then, by analyzing how the media played a significant role in illustrating a radical Islam for its audience. Moreover, it will analyze the ways in which the cartoon depictions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad were discussed in the media. Finally, this paper will conclude by presenting multiple solutions on media biases and how we, as a nation, can further prevent ourselves from the influence of the
Do you believe that the women of Islam are oppressed or do you believe that these women are treated equally? The question has arisen whether there is true equality between men and women in the Islamic community. There are many different positions and views regarding this topic. It is especially apparent more recently that women are striving and doing all that they can to have equality. “The past twenty years have been some of the darkest in women’s lives. With the anti-secularist backlash, the rise of political Islam, and efforts over the past two decades to impose religion on the people thousands have been executed - decapitated or stoned to death- and medieval laws to suppress women have been revived.” A source from http://www.famafrique.org says. This articles goes on to say that the media portrays a different image than how things really are.
Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, makes important strides toward altering how Western audiences perceive Iranian women. Satrapi endeavors to display the intersection of the lives of some Westerners with her life as an Iranian, who spent some time in the West. Satrapi, dissatisfied with representations she saw of Iranian women in France, decided to challenge them. In her words, “From the time I came to France in 1994, I was always telling stories about life in Iran to my friends. We’d see pieces about Iran on television, but they didn’t represent my experience at all. I had to keep saying, ‘No, it’s not like that there.’ I’ve been justifying why it isn’t negative to be an Iranian for almost twenty years. How strange when it isn’t something I did or chose to be?” (Satrapi, “Why I Wrote Persepolis” 10). In acknowledging both Eastern and Western feminism, Satrapi’s novel humanizes the female Iranian perspective in a way that can easily digested by Western audiences.
The knowledge of the audience is based on the images, symbols and narratives from sources of media such as television, film, music and other media (Brooks & Hebert, 297). During times of war, government campaigns and media systems have a strong influence in creating attitudes about a specific targeted group of people. This creates influential stereotypes into the minds of the audience. Islamophobia is defined as unfounded hostility towards Muslims (Defining Islamophobia). Islamophobes believe that Islam does not share the same teachings of other faiths, and Islam is a religion of violence which supports terrorism. The media produces images of Muslims and Islam as fundamentalists, terrorists, sexist, suicide bombers, militant and undemocratic (Defining Islamophobia). Race plays a major role in the public attitude toward Islam because in society, Muslims are viewed as Arabic. Hollywood has equated Islam and Arabs with violence and evil. Arabs ha...
To sum up, the statistics speak for themselves and the Britain’s fear of becoming an Islamic state is definitely not far-fetched. There is no doubt that the number of the Muslims
Muslims should be banned from entering the United States and we should have a database to track every American Muslim” (Healy). This recent statement by the Presidential candidate, Donald Trump asserts that Islamophobia in the United States is not a myth. Islamophobia is a serious issue which distresses many Muslims in the United States today. Thus, creating tension between Muslims and many fellow Americans leading to hate crimes, stereotypes, and inhumanity. This phenomenon is one which was created by Radical Islam and given life by the media.
Imagine a world immersed in beauty, wealth, gloss, and fame. I may be generalizing, but lets just say it’s a world in which you are born with a streaming talent that most individuals could only dream of. You constantly have hordes of spectators cheering your success and everyone wants to be your friend. The greatest fear of most women seems to be being hideous or lacking capacity and you have no idea what that feels like. Seems spectacular, doesn’t it? If you are a female actress or singer in the North American region then you probably know it is your cluster that I am referring to. Of course, what I talk about are only the optimistic and positive aspects of working in the acting or music career. Now imagine if you will, a world equally embellished world with gloss, beauty, wealth, and fame. However, there is one slight difference: you are incredibly limited in just about everything you do. It seems that your talents are restricted and by the end of the day people think you are exhausted because expressing yourself has never seemed more like a challenge and chore. Perhaps you are not even sure whether you are in love with what you do anymore. The audience you have is no longer only spectators. The world I describe is one that a female Muslim singer or actress knows very well. Discrimination against women in the entertainment industry, especially singers and actresses, is common in the Muslim world. These ladies often find themselves being prejudiced against and picked on simply because they are trying to pursue a career in a field they love but which is also unfortunately ostracized by religious fanatics.
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 ...
Initially, Old Testament describes women as the corrupter of man. However, through interpreting the action of Jesus Christ, we see that he holds women in equal roles as men, to include mention of female apostles. The New Testament does not promote equality but does mention the acts of Jesus. Finally, the Qur'an places women in a subservient role allowing men to keep their under control, by any means. Interpretations of the Gods word under the disguise of organized religion are the product of the gender discrimination of the time and continue to paint women as lesser creatures in the eyes of God.
You might have heard at some time or the other that Islam teaches that women are "inferior" and "unequal" to men. Women are described as weak, inferior, inherently evil (it is the nature of woman to promote fitnah (mischief)), we have deficient intellectual capabilities and are spiritually lacking. Furthermore, these evaluations have been used to claim that women are unsuitable for performing certain tasks, or for functioning in some ways in society.
Portrayal of Women in the Media Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person.
Women who have the misfortune of living in predominately Muslim societies often are confronted with adversities concerning their rights in marriage, divorce, education, and seclusion. Consequently, many Westerners seeing a lack of equality towards women in these societies consider it as a confirmation of their own misconceptions about Islam itself. Islam is often rejected as being an intolerant and violent religion that discriminates against and subjugates women, treating them as second-class citizens. From a Muslim’s perspective, Islam’s stance on women can be approached by two opposing views. Scholars amongst the Muslim apologists have claimed, “The verses in the Qur’an represented Muhammad's intention to improve a debased condition of women that prevailed during the Jahiliya, the time of ignorance before Islam came into being.” (Doumato, 177) If inequalities still exist between men and women, they cannot be attributed to Islam, but are a result of the misinterpretation of Islam’s true meaning. Others have entirely denied the notion of inequality between men and women in Islam, claiming that the alleged inequalities “are merely perceived as such by foreign observers who confuse seclusion and sex difference with inequality.” (Ibid.) Many Muslim apologists defend the Koran as noble for the very fact that it raises women to an equal status of men despite their inferiority.