Essay About Eyes Of Western Media And New Enemy

Islam( In The Eyes Of Western Media)
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ISLAM
(THROUGH THE EYES OF WESTERN MEDIA)
Jasmine Bhangoo
The worldwide Islamic revival of the 1970s and the 11 September 2001 attacks
on the United States have prompted many to predict that the two cultures are
on a major collision course. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the
West. Nevertheless, the West
has many stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam that are due to the
media, prejudice, and ignorance. Islam is often looked upon as a
“extremist”, “terrorist”, or “fundamental” religion. Many people hate Islam
and do not want to acknowledge its true teachings. In many cases, the
medias reports about Islam are incorrect due to ignorance. This is one of
the reasons why the West often hates Islam. In contrast to what many
Westerners think of Islam, Islam is a peaceful religion, which does not
promote any forms of uncalled for fighting or “terrorist” actions.
Today, the West, with little or no understanding of Islamic history, has
identified
a new enemy, “a new demon that has replaced the Red menace of the Cold war,
i.e., radical Islam” (Agha 6). This “radical Islam”, a stereotype common to
Western thought, portrays Muslims as fundamentalists or potential
terrorists. Some of these ideas that the Western people have about Islam are
due to the mass media of the West. Reporters who cover the Muslim world
often know very little details about it. The media then develops a distorted
image of Islam that Western culture adopts (Agha 2).
A major factor which contributes to Islamic stereotyping in the West is due
to the medias ignorance of selecting their words that describe Muslims.
Some common names heard or seen in the news about Muslims are “extremist” or
“terrorist”. These words are misleading and are mainly anti-Islamic. The
media rarely uses more neutral terms such as “revivalist” or “progressives”
(Hassan 2).
Just for political reasons, the US officials repeatedly claim that the issue
is terrorism, not Islam. On the contrary, its media, academia and political
analysts never stop presenting Islam as the next “ism” and a replacement of
the “Red Menace.” Due to their untiring efforts, every time a terror
strikes, non-Muslims and Muslims alike suspect an Islamic connection.
According to Judith Miller, and Emory Bogle, the disclaimers abound, but a
lingering suspicion about Muslims is getting permanently engraved in the
general views of terrorism, even if other groups are identified as the main
culprits for any particular incident. All we need is to settle the issue
whether it is a systematic, pre-determined effort to somehow undermine Islam
by presenting its followers as stubborn, insensitive, and terrorists, or
such views expressed by Western specialists, and anti-Islam policies framed
by the government officials, are just unlinked coincidences. The West views
Islam as “fundamental” “extremist” or “discriminatory”, but all of these
terms have be manipulated, purposely because of biased feelings and
accidentally because of ignorance, by the media to present a negative image
about Islam. Islam is actually a peaceful and fair religion that most often
does not correspond to the medias reports.
The vast majority of the American people are religiously ignorant and they
feel they have no need to find out about the other countries and other
religions. They rely on the selective information that is provided by the
media. The fact that the American media feeds selective information to
society is one of the biggest factors that have contributed to Americans
prejudices against Islam. The American media likes to tell us about the
negative aspects of Islam. They portray the countries that embrace this
religion in a negative way. For example, when the late Ayatollah Khomeini
gave a fatwa against the British author, Salman Rushdie, more coverage was
given on the fact that he placed a “hit” on this man than when the majority
of Muslims and Muslim countries opposed this fatwa. No one recognized that
Muslim law does not permit a man to be sentenced to death without a trial
and that Islam has no jurisdiction outside the Islamic world (Armstrong
337).
The true images of Muslims, Islam, and Arabs are never taken into account
and that is where the prejudice, hate, and discrimination originate. The
positive stories