The Role of Media in Portraying Islam as a Religion of Violence - Research Paper Example

? Role Played by Media in the Production and Perpetuation of Islamophobia Table of Content Introduction 3 Role of Media 5 Xenophobia and Islamophobia 6 Misrepresentation of Muslim 7 Conclusion 9 References 10 Role Played by Media in the Production and Perpetuation of Islamophobia Introduction Media shapes the public perception by covering the realities through their censorship; hence, the mass media has been used as a significant weapon. In fact, there is a substantial relationship between the role played by media and the post modernity, whereby it shapes people’s views in the world. Many media campaigns are against Islam and Muslims since most of the Western media possess sufficient financial resources, and multiple channels that have been showing rough pictures of Islam to the public. Moreover, the Muslim groups have been seeking to use various media outlets in order to convey their messages and compare the global dominance of the western media, but their efforts have not succeeded. Western media use the 9/11 incidence in order to capitalize their political gains, and depict Islam as extremism, radicalism and fundamentalism. Therefore, in the modern world where the role of media is taking center stage, the perception of reality is manipulated through a misrepresentation of facts concerning Muslims. The Muslims have been represented as terrorists, thus posing a menace to the Western security, thus media tries to justify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hence resulting to the emergence of "Islamophobia.” Nevertheless, there are insignificant initiatives being made as a way of responding to the negative campaigns. Instead, the media are using the acts of terrorism in order to justify that the public is collectively victims of terrorism (Mirza 2012, p. 4). Mass media has made a significant contribution in shaping wars, conflicts and resolutions, but it has failed in reflecting objectivity, since having been criticized that it has biases towards political agenda of the western world concerning the developed world. However, the media coverage and publication concerning Islam and Muslim have been challenged by issues of accuracy and vilification of information. Scholars, media commentators and experts have been politicized after the incidence in 9/11, and this has led to the creation of a minefield for policy makers and the public, who are seeking to understand the cause of radicalism and Anti-Americanism. In fact, there convictions that establishes a direct relationship between global communication and terrorism. Therefore, terrorism has been considered an indirect psychological strategy used for the avoidance of the direct contact with opponents, thus if there would be no media coverage, issues about terrorism would disappear. In this case, media were the reason behind Muslim and Terrorist becoming synonymous; hence, after the events such as 9/11, the experts and activists in the field of human rights issued a warning against the rise of Islamophobia and racism against Muslims. References can be established from the role of media after the cold war, and the rise of the new global threat concerning Islamic terrorist, since after the attacks and the rise of religious militancy, Islam has been the target of the scrutiny. In fact, this has been facilitated by deception of media concerning Islam as a representation of hostility. On the other hand, Muslims have made the effort of distinguishing themselves from the extremist groups, but the reality does not offer a representation of approximately 1.4 billion Muslims in the world. Consequently, numerous Muslims have been facing the implications and blames of isolation due to acts of terrorism perpetrated by others. In addition, the demonization of Muslims is opposition of fundamental rights trough the images that are portrayed through the media (Said, 1997, p. 34). Therefore, the paper will seek to develop a discussion of role played by media in depicting Islam as a religion of hostility through a misrepresentation of Muslims by elaborating on Islamophobia as a combination of “xenophobia” and “old-fashion racism,” and the role played by media in production and perpetuation of Islamophobia. Role of Media Media has played a traditional role of informing, educating, entertaining and persuading people, hence, influencing a change in their behaviors and attitudes towards certain issues that are emphasized. This has also contributed to a revolutionary progress of mass communication and opportunities of creating and sharing information concerning social change. However, the media have been converted to a tool in the affairs of war, through cumulative actions that are designed, elaborated and persuaded through media in shaping the opinion of the public. The power of media has demoralized men for period, and currently the power of live-actions video images on TV has become even more threatening. The instrument of mass communication in the modern world has enormous potential for inducing newer images in shaping global politics, culture and the public believes (Halliday, 1996, p. 45). Therefore, media have been used, as means of integrating, dispersing and individualizing people in the society, through there is a question on the wide-range of implications associated with media. Emergence of modern forms of communication technology is making the society be held hostage in the hands of the media, since people are being managed, manipulated and brainwashed. There are media commentators who have biased minds, and they extend their propaganda concerning their personal opinions through media as a way of disseminating biased ideas to the public. Xenophobia and Islamophobia Xenophobia refers to fear or contempt towards foreign or unknown things such as strangers or foreign people, and this entails hatred of a person who belongs to a different race, ethnic or nation’s background. Therefore, the fear or hatred is elements of xenophobia, whereby they involve a significant deal of generalization concerning other people. There is a situation where people develop a mindset concerning a large number of people, based on the actions of few, leading to the entire population being mistreated. In fact, the preoccupation with race made a new definition of xenophobia in the twentieth century, whereby was been referred to as the morbid dislike or dread of foreigners. After the racial ravages of National Socialism, xenophobia has been considered dislike for foreigners or preference among people of the same race and stigmatizing the others as xenophobic. Therefore, this rejection initiated the Muslim immigration into the Western countries through a transformation of opposition resulting from policies, hence xenophobia led to legitimization of “Islamophobia,” which has been used in stigmatizing the Muslims (Faatin, 2012, p. 7). “Islamophobia” is a term to refer to the form of intolerance and discrimination, which is motivated by fear, mistrust and hatred of Islam and Muslim. Moreover, “Islamophobia” is a manifestation attributed to a combination of the racism, religious intolerance anti-immigrant sentiments and xenophobia. In fact, definition has assumptions that the opposition to Islam excludes the possibility of being motivated by rational self-interest, instead of anger and passion. In addition, manifestation of Islamophobia entails hate speech, hostility and discrimination that are perpetrated against Islamic and Muslims, and this is depicted by associating Islam with terrorism and making appear as international and domestic threat. Cases of terrorism that is perpetrated spontaneously in different parts of the world, which are organized by a group on a certain community, individual or property, are wrongly associated with Muslim and Islam. There is other discriminatory immigration and naturalization procedure focuses on excluding the Muslim or placing them in a disadvantageous situation through comparison with other religion. Moreover, the racial profiling measures and surveillance of religious and culture of the Muslim organization, has resulted to inappropriate implications on the Muslims, though there are cases of restrictions through lawmaking and executive dimensions concerning the visibility of religious signs focusing on the Muslims. Misrepresentation of Muslim Media has taken the role of reporting fair and unbiased information, but there is being blamed for ignoring the ethical issues relating to the Islam. Western media have launched a campaign against Muslim that they claim to be a campaign against terror, since the stereotype of Muslims can have a history of 1400 years in the Western culture (McQuail, 1979, p. 70). The reasons for misrepresentation of Muslims through the media is rooted in history when Islam and Christianity were involved in Crusades, when Ottoman and Moorish controlled Europe. The rapid spread of Islam to the west threatened the position of Christianity and ruling classes, thus the western elite, who were mainly the government and churches involved themselves in portraying a negative perception of Islam. Therefore, this led to the war of words against Islam for ensuring that Muslims did not have covert in the western countries. Lack of acceptance related to the difference in religious affiliation has led to misrepresentation of Muslims in media, since it creates public panic concerning terrorist threats. For instance, the war on terrorism has been a war of images and the effective portrait are those of the victims and this facilitates discrimination associated with Islamophobia. In this way, media has managed to depict Muslims as a threat to security, through the focus on terrorism, which unifies the television coverage concerning Muslim news and images of Islamic Terrorism. An excellent example is the belief that has led to production of anti-Islamic films such as "Fitina,” which was attributed to the incidence in 9/11, whereby most experts had opinions concerning security issues, and the political causes of attacks. Currently, the western countries have a limited understanding of Islamic history; thus, they have identified Muslims as the enemy, due to stereotypes that are instilled in their thoughts by media, in order to relate Muslims with terrorism. Ideas in the western people concerning the Muslims have been established by the mass media of the West, since reporters cover Muslims with insignificant details; thus, they end up offering distorted information about Islam. Therefore, media are a substantial cause that has contributed to Islamic stereotyping in the Western countries because of expressions used in assortment describing Muslims. Some of the common names that are used to describe Muslims are such as extremists or terrorists, which are misleading and anti-Islamic, though the media uses words like revivalist or progressives. The other misconception that is broadcasted through media concerns the existence of the jihad or the holy war in Islam, which refers to struggle in the path of God. On the other hand, media used the word jihad to refer to a war involving Muslims unreasonably killing nonbelievers (Hippler, 2000, p. 5). Nevertheless, the fact is media distorts information concerning Jihad in order to mean Muslim kill for the sake of their God, and this form of definition is in numerous reports published and broadcasted by media. Therefore, media take the term Jihad out of the context in order to propagate negative perception on Islam, by associating them with violence as a misconception. Conclusion In conclusion, the paper has discussed the role of media in portraying Islam as a religion of violence through a misrepresentation, thereby elaborating on Islamophobia as a combination of “xenophobia” and “old-fashion racism,” and the role played by media in production and perpetuation of Islamophobia. In fact, the reports about Islamic in the media have been describing them as the extremists, for example, the Time magazine once published a Muslim’s photograph performing players with guns and the title indicated that guns and prayers go together in the fundamentalist battle. However, information indicating that the Muslim in the photo was a solder in the battlefield in Afghanistan, was not included, thus indicating that the situation was focused to indicate that the solders are always armed in fear of being attacked at any moment. References Faatin H. (2012), Global Media, Islamophobia and Its Impact on Conflict Resolution. Working Group: Islam and Media, Retrieved on 30 October 2012 from Hippler, J., (2000), Foreign Policy, “The Media and Western Perception of the Middle East” Kai Hafez (ed.), Islam and the West in the Mass Media, Fragmented Images in a Globalizing World, Cresskill NJ: Hampton Press, Halliday, F. (1996), Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics in the Middle East, London: Cenagage McQuail, D. (1979), The Influence and Effects of Mass Media, In J.Curran, M. Gurevitch and J. Woolacott, eds, Mass Communication and Society, Thousand Oaks: Sage Mirza M. (2012), The Perception of Islam and Muslims in the Media and the Responsibility of European Muslims Towards the Media. Retrieved on 30 October 2012 from Said, E. (1997), Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, New York: Vintage Books Read More