Islamophobia

and Media
By: Ms. Anila Abid
Table of contents

01 02 03 04
Introduction History Islamophobi Conclusions
and Media
 “Do not revile those (beings) whom
they invoke instead of God, lest they,
in their hostility, revile God out of
ignorance.”
—THE QURAN 6: 108.
“Nothing hurts a good soul
and a kind heart more than
to live amongst people who
cannot understand it.”
. Abu-Talib
—Hazrat Ali Ibn
“Islamphobia is “hatred or fear of
Islam, esp. as a political force;
hostility or prejudice towards
Muslims”.
—According to Oxford English Dictionary
 Introduction

Islamophobia is any distinction, exclusion, or restriction towards, or preference

against, Muslims (or those perceived to be Muslims) that has the
purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment
or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental
freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field
of public life (Elahi and Khan 2017: 1)
 Introduction
The definition of Islamophobia as the
alarming and fear of Islam and
Muslims. In an internationally the
awareness of nonMuslims related to
Muslims and Islam has been
portraying in a very negative sense.
To represent Islam and Muslims in
media is conflict, ignorant, barbaric,
intolerant maddened terrorist,
religious zealots and distorted
images are still portrayed to
internationally. (Abbas, T.,2004)
History

The anti-Muslim
The consequent events
discourse in the Western It grew during the periodic
of 9/11 in 2001, further
media began with the crises over Libya and the
amplified the tone and
Iranian Revolution in Middle East in the 1980s
volume of the discourse.
1979

However, academic interest in the representation of Islam in the media grew after
the publication of the Runnymede Trust’s report, “Islamophobia: A Challenge for
All of Us” in 1997.
Literature review
Scholars have argued that what is said or written
about Muslim thought, nature, religion, or culture in
the mainstream Western media is not the same as
what is said or discussed about Africans, Jews,
other Orientals, or Asians (Said, 1980).

Islam is portrayed as populated by „an

undifferentiated mob of scimitar-waving oil
suppliers‟ (Said, 1980: 19) or as a religion of
irrational violence that subordinates its women
(Said, 1980).
Islamophobia & Media
● Mass media play an important role in the creation and distribution of ideologies (Gitlin,
1980; Hall, 1990) and thereby contribute to the overall cultural production of
knowledge (Poole, 2002).
● The stories and images in the media provide resources (symbols) through which we
organize a common culture and through the appropriation of which we insert
ourselves into this culture (Van Dijk, 1991).
● Media discourses were frequent in associating minorities with drug involvements and
depicting them as problematic to society (Wilson and Gutierrez, 1985).
● Media portrayals of African-Americans were found to align with majority white
preconceptions of blacks being thieves, troublemakers, violent, and drug pushers
(Oliver, 1994; Staples, 2011).
● Scholars in other parts of the world found similar representation of other minorities
Islamophobia & Media
● Van Dijk (1991) analyzed two decades of research investigating the relations between
media and minority groups across North America and Europe and concluded that the
media was representative of a white supremacy which predominantly depicted
minorities as „a problem or a threat, and mostly in association with crime, violence,
conflict, unacceptable cultural differences, or other forms of deviance‟ (Van Dijk, 1991:
20).

● Since the resurgence of religion in public life in late 2000s, there has been a shift in the
academic interest of media studies from race and ethnicity to religion, and Islam has
been at the fore (Knott and Poole, 2013).
Portrayal of Media

Sexist
Monolithic Homogenised Heartless
Religion
Media
Portryal
Religious
Brutal Inequality Terrorist
Fanatics
Religious Fanatics
Symbols of Religious Extremists

Hijab Beard
Soft Image and Change of Narrative
Portrayal of Gender Inequality
Sexist Religion
Islamophobia & Extremism
● Most people accept such narratives unquestioningly. So, if the papers say that we
have a problem with Islamic extremism, it means we have a problem with Islamic
extremism.
● If non-violent extremism is the same as violent extremism, then it is the same. If we are
now left to define extreme ideas, what could that mean?
● For example, the idea that Jesus is going to come back defies the very laws of nature;
so, in theory, surely that idea is extreme? Not to mention the belief in miracles, which
would require us to suspend the physical laws of the universe.
● By this logic we are left with an infinite list of what could possibly constitute “extreme”,
owing to its subjectivity and ultimate indeterminacy. This brings us to a critical
question: what falls under politically charged categories like “extremist” and
“fundamentalist” – and what is the role of the media in legitimising these categories?
Islamophobia & Extremism
● What makes an extremist, “extreme”, is his or her recourse to violence (or the
propensity to do so) as a means to get a point or message across. How can there then
be such a thing as a non-violent extremism? It treads on common sense.

● But what are the indicators according to which this propensity is determined? In other
words, when does a Muslim become an extremist, i.e. a “threat”? Conveniently, there
are no pre-established standards that define what it means to be a “threat”. More
often than not, the definition is pragmatically employed by opportunistic politicians
and Islamophobes, who are unable to contribute any explanatory scope or power.
Islamophobia & Media
● But in our day and age, the aura of fear perpetuated by politicians and the media
obscures our reality and produces an artificially construed representation of that
reality.

● To appreciate this we must understand that the very process of constructing a

discourse (in this case the discourse surrounding “extremism” and “fundamentalism”)
is a reality-defining process or, what some scholars have referred to as “world-
making”.

● In a politically charged environment marred by the looming “threat” posed by “Muslim

extremists”, objectivity is virtually impossible.
Role of Media
● The media no longer serve to challenge hegemonic narratives and discourses
disseminated by governments; in fact, they often now act as a fourth branch of the
government and a mouthpiece through which these narratives are normalised and
brought into our homes.

● There are several ways in which the mainstream media go about fulfilling this role.
Stephen Schwartz laments that:
“We have reached the fourth anniversary of the terrible attacks of September 11,
2001.
Islamophobia & Media
● When the media make these egregious “errors”, they manifest and become a direct
cause of the physical brutalisation that is visited upon Muslim citizens. A most notable
example is the recent French Islamophobic attack on a Moroccan man who was
stabbed 17 times, whilst his killer screamed, “I am your God, I am your Islam.”

● 3 In other incidents, 26 mosques around France were attacked with firebombs, gunfire,
pig heads and grenades. According to the French National Observatory Against
Islamophobia, a total of 60 Islamophobic incidents were reported.
Islamophobia and Media
● The lack of any meaningful balance to countervail a prevailing opinion also heavily
contributes to the rise in Islamophobic sentiment. Edward Said calls this the “Islam as
News” phenomenon.

● One of the more prominent instances of this occurred in Canada in 2006. MacLean‟s
magazine, a Canadian version of The Times, published a polemical and Islamophobic
article by Mark Steyn. The article opined that Muslims breed faster than mosquitos and
that they would eventually constitute the majority of Europe, or what he sardonically
calls “Eurabia”.
● When several Muslim Law students requested space in MacLean‟s magazine to
respond, MacLean‟s stated that they would rather “Bankrupt the magazine” than
afford the aforementioned Muslim Students any opportunity to provide balance to
Anti-Ialamophobia efforts

Muslim Council of
15th March
Elders
International Day to Combat The first institutional body to
Islamophobia bring the Islamic nation together
 Conclusion
The lives of Muslims are significantly
complicated due to negative and
prejudice representation of media.
Jizak-Allah