Media Stereotypes of Islam and Muslims: A Global Perspective
By Omar Kalinge
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About this ebook
This book is being written for a global audience that consumes stereotypes about Islam and Muslims on a daily basis. It will be useful to Muslim congregations which would like to mitigate the impact of the overbearing Muslim stereotype by adopt- ing a more proactive strategy by presenting the correct image of their faith. It is a tool for interreligious dialogue for those interested in intercultural harmony. The book follows a simple strategy. It explains key concepts. It examines the usage and application of stereotypes in a general sense and relates some results from behavioural tests to help the reader grasp the implications. Having identified the specific areas in which Muslim stereotypes are mostly located, like democracy, human rights, women's rights, violence and others, it presents the correct position of Islam on each of the areas. It covers responses by Muslims to stereotypes and Islamophobic attacks on Islam and Muslims – and in this, as it ends, it chooses the lighter approaches that help diffuse tensions but also promote understanding.
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Media Stereotypes of Islam and Muslims - Omar Kalinge
CHAPTER 1
TERMS DEFINITIONS AND USAGE
Media
According to the Business Dictionary, Media is defined as; Communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated. Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet. Media is the plural of medium and can take a plural or singular verb, depending on the sense intended.
Usage: According to Oxford Dictionaries (https:// en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/media) The word media comes from the Latin plural of medium. The traditional view is that it should therefore be treated as a plural noun in all its senses in English and be used with a plural rather than a singular verb: the media have not followed the reports (rather than ‘has’).
In practice, in the sense ‘television, radio, and the press collectively’, it behaves as a collective noun (like staff or clergy, for example), which means that it is now acceptable in standard English for it to take either a singular or a plural verb. The word is also increasingly used in the plural form medias, as if it had a conventional singular form media, especially when referring to different forms of new media, and in the sense ‘the material or form used by an artist’: there were great efforts made by the
medias of the involved countries about 600 works in all genres
and medias were submitted for review.
Stereotype
A stereotype can be defined as a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment.
[Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary].
A stereotype is a thought that someone has about specific types of individuals that may or may not accurately reflect reality. Stereotypes can also be thought of like caricatures, which are pictures that exaggerate certain features while oversimplifying others and end up distorting the essence of an individual or a group of people. Many stereotypes are widely held but they are also over generalized images or ideas about a particular type of person. Any time we group individuals together and make a generalization or judgment about them without knowing them, this is an example of a stereotype.
In the Western media, Islam is hardly ever covered as a religion, but is something which has to do with politics, fundamentalism, or terrorism. The Muslim media, on the other hand focuses on love conspiracies and see the western world as a sex fixated people with no moral, uncivilized politics and double standards.
Prejudice
A prejudice is an opinion - usually an unfavorable one - that was formed before having any evidence and that is not based on reason or experience. While a stereotype is a thought about a person or group of people, a prejudice relates to feelings and attitudes about that person or group of people. Prejudices are often rooted in the idea that certain types of people are worth less or are less capable than others.
Discrimination
Discrimination refers to behaviour. It can be direct, indirect or structural and often results from stereotypes or prejudicial attitudes.
When we have expectations or feelings about people based on characteristics like religious belief, gender etc. we may act in ways that negatively affect individuals or groups of people. Often we don’t even think about the stereotypes or prejudices we hold and may hurt or disadvantage people without realising it. We may think that we are simply behaving in ways that accurately reflect the realities or abilities of men and women but we are actually discriminating and reinforcing inequality. Even if a stereotype is seen as or meant to be positive, the fact that not all persons in that group meet that standard often leads to a positive
stereotype disadvantaging specific individuals.(E.g. Muslims are rich).
Stereotypes and prejudice have a pervasive and often pernicious influence on our responses to others, and also in some cases on our own behaviors. To take one example, social psychological research has found that our stereotypes may in some cases lead to stereotype threat—performance decrements that are caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes. Spencer, Steele, and Quinn (1999) found that when women were reminded of the (untrue) stereotype that women are poor at math,
they performed more poorly on math tests than when they were not reminded of the stereotype, and other research has found stereotype threat in many other domains as well.
You may have had some experiences where you found yourself responding to another person on the basis of a stereotype or a prejudice, and perhaps the fact that you did surprised you. Perhaps you then tried to get past these beliefs and to react to the person more on the basis of his or her individual
characteristics. We like some people and we dislike others— this is natural—but we should not let a person’s skin color, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnic background make these determinations for us. And yet, despite our best intentions, we may end up making friends only with people who are similar to us and perhaps even avoiding people whom we see as different.
Islam
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Islam is the religious faith of Muslims including belief in Allah as the sole deity and in Muhammad as his prophet. It is also the civilization erected upon Islamic faith.
The true meaning of Islam
It is false to call Islam Mohammedanism, as has been done so frequently. Muslims believe that Islam is the eternal message which Allah sent to all prophets, peace be upon them, from the dawn of mankind, and not a new belief which began with the Prophet Muhammad.
Muslims call their religion Islam, and the Arabic word Islam implies the attainment of peace through submission to Allah. The word Muslim is an adjective derived from the noun Islam, and implies one who has peace within himself from his submission to Allah.
Muslims believe in the One, Eternal God, Who created the heavens and the earth and all that exists. In Arabic, God is called Allah. There is absolutely no difference between Allah and the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus, peace be upon them all.
Muslims do not believe that Prophet Muhammad was the only Prophet; rather they believe that he was the last of the
Prophets of the Old and New Testaments. The Holy Qur’an is the revealed and sacred scripture of Islam, and it teaches: Say Ye: ‘We believe in Allah and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them: and we submit to Allah.’
(Qur’an 2:136)
Islamophobia:
Is a term for prejudice against, hatred towards, or fear of Islamic doctrine, Muslims, or of ethnic groups perceived to be Muslim. Islamophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice and racism may take the form of: name-calling; offensive jokes; cultural or religious insensitivity; verbal assault; graffiti; intimidation; exclusion; discrimination; denial of services and entitlements; physical assault.
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is an un reasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign or different.
In today’s media, globally, there are several groups that are regularly, and even systematically, stereotyped: immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees; Roma; and, increasingly since 9/11, Muslims. This phenomenon contributes to discrimination of these groups of people, as well as, ironically, to a feeling of insecurity among the native ethnic majorities and/or non- Muslim population). Xenophobic stereotyping in the media can go as far as to constitute so-called hate speech and to contribute, if not unleash, armed communal conflict, even genocide.
While appeals to the media for accuracy and fairness continue, newspaper headlines regularly print the words Islam
and
Muslim
next to words like fanatic,
fundamentalist,
militant,
terrorist
and violence.
Uses of the term "jihad" in television programs and films are also illustrative. As we all should know, the word jihad "is more accurately translated as ‘exertion of effort’, not ‘holy war.’
We all use stereotypes
We all use stereotypes. They help us classify and identify people based on criteria such as religion, gender, and ethnicity. It is a process of categorisation which has always existed and will always exist because it makes our lives easier.
Stereotypes are common in thought. They are short cuts and real timesavers: everybody knows right away what we are talking about, and therefore stereotypes are used all the time, especially in the media.
The problem with stereotypes is when we begin using them to give negative characteristics to other groups and treat individual members of these groups according to those characteristics. The lack of critical thought and the lack of knowledge favours an unconscious acceptance of the ‘truth’ employed in stereotypes. It is when we don’t know or when we have little information about another group that we accept a stereotype as a real image and start applying this half-truth or indeed un truth to the whole group.
Stereotypes are so powerful because they are simple, easily recognisable and enjoy the acceptance of the community