Negative Representation of Arab Muslims in the American Media - Report Example

Negative Representation of Arab Muslims in the American Media 2009 Introduction The American media has, for years represented the Arab Muslim world in a negative manner. Not only are stereotype images of fundamentalism and terrorism generalized for the entire Muslim community, as the Palestenian-born intellectual, Edward Said noted in his incisive book, Covering Islam (1981), the negative representation has been heightened through subtler methods of presenting news on the Middle East and Muslim community in America and abroad. In an interview in 2005, Larry Bienhart, author of the book, Wag the Fog, describes fog facts as the news that are trivia are highlighted while the more important news get hidden in the fog. This is not any accident, according to Bienhart, but deliberately done as a propaganda exercise by the media that is close to the administration. Most news, with exceptions like natural disasters and so on, are made big through deliberate manipulations like press releases and conferences. The media plays into the hands of government media spin exercises particularly in covering the Muslim world. In this paper, I will collect data from prominent newspapers in the United States over the recent past to analyze how Arab Muslims are represented. The study will cover the stereotypes and generalizations, as well as deliberate misrepresentation of news. Background The negative representation of Arab Muslims reached its zenith after the 9/11 events and during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Through the US presence in Iraq since its attack on the country, there have been frequent propaganda stories on the media. An example of how the administration evaded the truth can be seen from the reaction to a query from a Times journalist on the 2005 killing of 24 Iraqis, including women and children, in Haditha, after insurgents detonated a bomb that killed one infantryman and injured two. In the military hearing on the event, the four officers who had ordered the killing justified themselves. Even as the hearing continued, the marine, without answering any of the questions, including those whether any officer was killed in the event, provided a searing indictment on the media’s intent and its values in patriotism (New York Times, 2007). The Pentagon has also acclaimed American casualties as war heroes when the marine involved was actually killed by a friendly firing or when injured by a grenade crash rather than a shoot-out. In 2007, Cpt Pat Tillman, who died in a case of friendly firing in Iraq, was made a national hero as was Jessica Lynch. While Tillman’s brother testified later that eyewitnesses had confirmed that Tillman was killed by an accidental friendly fighting, Lynch testified that she was injured in a grenade crash and did not deserve to become a legend for having survived an attack (Spillius, 2007). As the WMD theory was not substantiated and the coalition of Al Qaeda with Iraq began to be doubted, demands began to be raised for American withdrawal from Iraq. The administration propagandists then began to float stories of impending withdrawal of the US from Iraq, through television programs like “what Iraq might look like when the U.S. military leaves” on “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer” on PBS (Solomon, 2007). Times, too, ran a cover story, “Iraq: What will happen when we leave” although the scheduled American withdrawal in mid-2008 then looked unlikely. Such media spins have been made necessary to squash public opinion against the war and the US presence in Iraq, which claimed many marine lives and has had some adverse effects on domestic public opinion. According to a New York Times report in 2007, the House voted unanimously for US’ immediate withdrawal from Iraq. However, on close analysis, it was found that the bill actually voted against any permanent erection of US bases in Iraq and did not say anything on temporary military bases or the withdrawal of existing forces (Solomon, 2007). According to Anker (2005), melodrama, which is typically considered a literary or film genre, is as pervasive in the media coverage of the United States, particularly post 9/11. The news coverage after the attack on the World Trade Center turned America into a victim of the villainous and violent fundamentalism of Islam that had dangerous ramifications in turning the victimization into heroic retribution (Anker, 2005). Studying FOX television stories covering 9/11 events, Anker notes that music was used to enhance the good versus evil tone of the relationship between (the good) America and (the bad) Islam. The devilish image of Islam has appeared in the US media post 9/11 in many forms. For example, the Associated Press acquired the rights and circulated the image taken by a freelance photograph of a ball of smoke resembling the face of a demon emerging out of the twin towers. Such apocalyptic representation of Christian imagery has time and again been exorcised in the media to represent the rift that has ostensibly remained since the days of the Crusades (Gunn 2004, Fagan, 2006). While the media representation of Arab Muslims in the recent years tend to project them directly as violent, repressive and anti-West, even before the 9/11 and subsequent “War on Terror”, Muslims have been projected as “oil suppliers or potential terrorists” (Said, 1981). According to Said, newsworthiness of world issues are determined in the United States not from any political or ideological angle but what particular interest groups like oil corporations or Zionists deemed fit. Hence, the Western scientific attitude, that is believed to be “cool, relatively detached instruments of scientific, quasi-objective representation” looks at Islam as a “distant and alien society” (Said, 1981, quoted in Welty, 1997). Hence, Israel is viewed in the US media as the victim of Arab hatred and Iranian Islamic resurgence as demonic. So, as Said puts it, “the overall interpretive bankruptcy of most -- though by no means all -- writing on Islam can be traced to the old-boy corporation-government-university network dominating the whole enterprise…. finally, determines the way the United States views the Islamic world” (Said, 1981, quoted in Welty, 1997). Method My method of studying the media representation of Arab Muslims is to undertake a random survey of recent articles from Washington Post and New York Times on Middle East and Islamic issues, ranging from political, cultural and social topics. I will attempt to analyze these articles by studying the visuals used, the language semiotics of the headlines, introduction and portrayal of Middle East issues and people. I will also analyze whether the writer of the articles are western and Christian or Arab Muslims, chances being that in the former case there might be some inherent biases. Then, I will also analyze whether the people interviewed for the article to understand whether the information collected depicts local people or that western view that might have the potential of misrepresentation of the issue. Analysis From the random survey undertaken, it appears that the negative media representation of Arab Muslims has mellowed down to a large extent from the hysteria that was built up in the early years of the millennium. While most Arab Muslims earlier were equated with terrorism and fundamentalism, over the years, it has been recognized that religion and politics are not necessary synonymous. For example, in a report in Washington Post dated March 19, 2009, it was noted that the Pope refrains from “pointing fingers at any faith since a 2006 speech in which he linked violence to Islam”. As reported, an angry response from the Muslim world forced the Pope to express regret for the comment and meet Muslim leaders in various countries since then. However, the report headline says “Pope tells Muslims that religion rejects violence” although the introduction makes it clear that the speech was delivered at an open-air Mass at Cameroon and hence it was addressed at African Catholics. It is true that Cameroon has Muslims and Christians almost in equal numbers and the speech was also indirectly addressed at the Muslims but the report’s implications are vague, thus following the typical stereotyping of Muslims with violence. Although the Washington Post takes care to be politically correct when writing about Arab Muslims, there is nonetheless negative stereotyping present even now. For example, in a report by Rick Callahan on March 18, 2009, American born prisoner, John Walker Lindh, is referred to as “American Taliban”, the inverted commas apparently signifying that an American and a Taliban is an oxymoron. Despite the fact that Lindh has been imprisoned since 2002 with a 20-year sentence for helping the Taliban regime after being captured in Afghanistan, the story is far more sympathetic towards Lindh than it would have been towards a captured Arab Muslim Taliban. The story quoted Lindh’s lawyer who claims “John was just in the wrong place at the wrong time”, his father who claimed that “Lindh has been wrongly maligned as a traitor and a murderer”. The father’s opinion is not presented in quotes but by the writer’s own words as if it is a proven statement. The story ends with the tear-jerker that Lindh’s family had been attempting to persuade the Bush government to set Lindh free. The story nowhere mentions why the Federal prison has now decided to ease restrictions on Lindh, implying that being an American-born and a voluntary convert to Islam (and not born an Arab Muslim) is reason enough to be spared tough imprisonment. New York Times reports are more balanced with Arab Muslims looked at with some sympathy. For example, in a report by Ethan Bronner on March 19, 2009 on the civilian casualties in the Gaza war, the excessive force and random killings of civilians by the Israeli army is described by anecdotal testimonies by soldiers, besides noting that only about 10 Israeli soldiers were killed, some even by their own firing, in a war that had 1300 casualties, including 121 women and 288 children. In a 2006 New York Times report on a Syrian-American psychiatrist, Dr. Wafa Sultan, who received death threats after condemning Islam on Al Jazeera, the focus of the story was to portray her as a modern woman who has adopted the American way of life, including the dress, being victimized for her protest. Although Sultan herself says that she has given up her Muslim identity, does not practice Islam and instead considers Jews as a more modern religion that Islam, the headline cries out the opposite saying, “For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats” as if religion is given by birth and till death. In another New York Times story on October 18, 2008, reporting on a fair number of Arab Muslims in Brooklyn being registered as voters, the introduction describes the Arab Muslims praying outside the mosque and next to a table that has voter registration forms. The photograph that accompanies the story, too, shows the same image. While the story commends on Arab Muslim leaders as well as Democratic leaders of the area urging the people to shed the distrust of the American voting system and get registered as voters, the story begins with the stereotyped image of Muslims unwilling to let go of the daily prayer routine, even if it means that they have to do it on the sidewalks. The introduction as well as the photograph serves no other purpose than to portray the image of the backwardness and the lack of education of the Arab Muslims. Even the Democratic American leader is quoted as saying that he, being an Italian American, remembers what it feels like to be equated with the mafia and violence, implying that Arab Muslims are necessarily thought to be terrorists. Conclusion Thus, although the victimization of the Arab Muslims and their negative stereotyping in the American media is less than it was in the early years of the decade, there are subtle ways in which such representation continues. Undertaking a qualitative analysis of some articles randomly chosen from the Washington Post and New York Times, we have found that even when the broader intention is to provide an unbiased view of the Arab Muslim world as well as the Arab Muslim community in the United States, linguistic bias remains. Islam is equated with a backward religion, Christianity and even the Jewish religion considered progressive by default. Besides, Arab Muslims are generalized with violence while Americans are spared the guilt even when they have been sentenced for violence. Works Cited Spillus, Alex, Pentagon spin on Iraq 'heroes' exposed, April 27, 2007, The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/25/whero25.xml New York Times, A Marine Tutorial on Media ‘Spin’, June 24, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/weekinreview/24word.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Solomon, Norman, Media Spin on Iraq: We’re Leaving (Sort of), Common Dreams, July 26, 2007, http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/26/2779/ Anker, Elisabeth, Villains, victims and heroes: Melodrama, media, and September 11, Journal of Communication, Vo 55, No 1, 2005 Gunn, Joshua, The Rhetoric of Exorcism: George W. Bush and the Return of Political Demonology, Western Journal of Communication, Vol. 68, 2004 Fagan, Jill Ann, Religious Identity and its Relevance in Interpreting Media Portrayals of Muslims, Thesis Submitted for Master of Arts in Communication, Washington State University, 2006, http://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu:8080/dspace/bitstream/2376/530/1/J_Fagen_061506.pdf Said, Edward, Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How we See the Rest of the World, 1981, 1997 Edition, Vintage Books Welty, Gordon, Review of Edward Said, Covering Islam, Vintage Books, 1997, Dayton Voice, August 10, 1997, http://www.wright.edu/~gordon.welty/Said97.htm Callahan, Rick, Fed to ease restrictions on “American Taliban”, March 18, 2009, Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/18/AR2009031801764.html Simpson, Victor L, Pope Tells Muslims that Religion Rejects Violence, Washington Post, March 19, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031900389.html Bronner, Ethan, Soldiers’ Accounts of Gaza Killings Raise Furore in Israel, New York Times, March 19, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/world/middleeast/20gaza.html?_r=1&hp Broder, John M, For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats, New York Times, March 11, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/11/international/middleeast/11sultan.html?scp=5&sq=Islam&st=cse Estrin, James, Arab Muslims in Brooklyn Find Power in the Voting Booth, October 18, 2008, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/nyregion/19muslim.html?scp=5&sq=Arab%20Muslim&st=cse Read More