ISS 7 Islam and Contemporary Civilisation

Evolving Ideas, Transforming Relations

Halim Rane

• Publisher: MUP Academic Digital
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780522857283
• eBook ISBN: 9780522860078
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamische Theologie

Islam and Contemporary Civilisation examines the most complex debates and dilemmas facing Islam today, both internally and in its relations with Western civilisation.
Halim Rane provides a concise and comprehensive introduction to Islam and modern developments in Muslim thought, and tackles questions of Islamic law, human rights, democracy, jihad and the Israel-Palestine conflict in the context of Islam-West relations.
In confronting these challenging issues, Rane proposes a way forward that has far-reaching implications for advancing mutual understanding and finding common ground between the Muslim world and the West.

III

Dilemmas

7

Mediated Islam

Much of what is known about Islam and Muslims in Western societies is derived from the mass media. The image of Islam in the Western media presents a dilemma for both Muslims living in Western countries in terms of inter-community relations, as well as for the Muslim world more broadly in terms of international relations. Additionally, the mass media are an integral part of a functioning democracy, but operate more along authoritarian lines in most Muslim countries today and do not meet the expectations of the majority of Muslims from either the perspective of Islam or democracy. The first part of this chapter examines Islam as portrayed by the Western media and addresses such issues as the impact of media content on social relations and foreign affairs. The second part of this chapter focuses on media in Muslim societies and explores the question of an Islamic media model.

The mass media, including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, films, books and websites, have particular power and potential in modern society. They transcend time and space, which enables audiences to acquire information about people, places and events not directly experienced. The media give meaning to issues and events covered and thereby have the potential to influence opinions, attitudes and beliefs. In the absence of direct or first-hand experience, the mass media generally become a primary source of information. Consequently, the media can have a profound impact on social relations and international affairs.

Media experts often refer to what are called news values, news-worthiness or the factors that determine what makes the news and what does not. Primary among these factors are proximity, timeliness and interest. Media organisations rightly assume that audiences, including viewers and readers, want news that is up-to-date and relevant to where they live. They also assume, perhaps rightly, that audiences prefer news that is exciting, unusual, sensational and extreme. The issue of news values goes some way to explaining media content but is not comprehensive. Other important factors include levels of knowledge, ideology and agendas of producers, editors and journalists, as well as more mundane operational factors such as time and space constraints and publication or broadcast deadlines.

By the term mediated Islam I mean the version of Islam that has become known via the mass media. However, it could be said that mediated Islam predates modernity: ever since Islam came into meaningful contact with the West from the eighth century, writers, travellers, commanders and scholars have documented both what they observed and imagined of the Muslim world. For those who relied on such sources for their ‘knowledge’, the Muslim world was simultaneously exotic and barbaric, cultured and heretic, inferior and threatening. Such contradictory views of the Muslim world are examined by Edward Said in his book Orientalism. This approach to understanding the Muslim world is observable in a range of scholarship and is also found in Western media coverage of Islam.

Since the Gulf War of 1991 and even as far back as the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Islam and Muslims have attracted considerable media attention. Numerous content analyses show that Islam and Muslims have overwhelmingly been portrayed pejoratively by the mass media. Since 9/11, further research has continued to show not only a massive increase in the volume of media coverage of Islam and Muslims, but also an increase in the pejorative nature of this coverage. The dominant image of Muslims in the Western media is of a people who are violent, intolerant, oppressive and threatening.

This is not to suggest that violence, terrorism, discrimination against women and violations of human rights committed by some Muslims in the name of Islam are an invention of the mass media. Undeniably, these are a reality in certain parts of the Muslim world among certain Muslim people, which accentuates the imperative for Muslims today to redefine Islam in terms of its priorities. The problem, however, is that the Western media’s preoccupation with the extremes in the Muslim world precludes any awareness of mainstream Muslim life. Moreover, the representation of Islam in the media lends legitimacy to extremist Muslims as the representatives of Islam. Compounding the problem is an almost complete absence of the majority Muslim voice and the beliefs, opinions and attitudes of the mainstream. Consequently, when people rely on the mass media for their understanding of Islam and Muslims, they are unlikely to gain a view of the complete picture or even the main picture. Hardline and extreme Muslim voices are overrepresented and tend to be presented as representative of the Muslim masses. The statements and actions of a minority of Muslims are deemed newsworthy and dominate the popular understanding of Islam.

In his book Covering Islam, Said sums up the media representation of Islam best when he says:

The term Islam as it is used today seems to mean one simple thing but in fact is part fiction, part ideological label, part minimal designation of a religion called Islam. In no real significant way is there a direct correspondence between the ‘Islam’ in common Western usage and the enormously varied life that goes on within the world of Islam, with its more than 800 000 [now 1.5 billion] people, its millions of square miles of territory principally in Africa and Asia, its dozens of societies, states, histories, geographies, cultures. On the other hand, ‘Islam’ is peculiarly traumatic news today in the West … During the past few years, especially since events in Iran caught European and American attention so strongly, the media have therefore covered Islam: they have portrayed it, characterised it, analysed it, given instant courses on it, and consequently they have made it ‘known’.¹

What has been the impact of mediated Islam on intercommunity relations in the West? The relevant body of literature consists of a growing number of content and discourse analyses. Elizabeth Poole finds that in the British press, British Muslims are presented not as an accepted part of society but as an out-group or ‘other’ in accordance with orientalist thinking.² Australian journalist and media commentator Peter Manning also finds orientalist and stereotypical coverage in the Australian press of events in Indonesia, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Palestine. Among his major findings are that Arabs and Muslims overseas are portrayed as violent, ‘without reason, humanity or compassion’; Sydney Arab men are portrayed as ‘sexual predators’; and Middle Eastern asylum seekers are presented as ‘tricky, ungrateful and undeserving’.³ Focusing on the American context, Fawaz Gerges argues that negative media representation of Islam and Muslims, coupled with the influence of certain lobby groups and foreign-policy elites, exerts significant influence on the American public, which in turn fosters a hardline US foreign policy towards political Islam.⁴

While most analyses of the representation of Islam and Muslims in the mass media tend to focus on factual media, predominantly newspapers and television news, fictional media are equally important in the context of this discussion. The relationship between fictional and factual media in this context tends to be one of resonance. This point is affirmed by the work of Jack Shaheen. His study ‘Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People’ demonstrates that Hollywood films portraying Arabs and Muslims frequently allude to or are based upon actual events or issues, giving fictional films a factual or authoritative character. In his analysis of more than 900 films portraying Arabs and Muslims, Shaheen contends that the films repeatedly dehumanised Arabs and Muslims, portraying them as heartless, brutal, uncivilised, religious fanatics who are violent and terrorists. He argues that, because of their repetitious nature, such portrayals have a negative impact on public discourse and policy. Films that offered audiences a humane and humanised understanding of Islam and Muslims were very few according to Shaheen’s research.⁵ It should be noted, however, that a more balanced and sophisticated portrayal of Arabs and Muslims has been coming out of Hollywood studios over the past few years. Such films as Syriana, Body of Lies and Traitor not only portray the complexities of the Middle East politics but also present a diversity of Arab and Muslim characters and their approaches to Islam.

These studies show that there is consistency in the representation of Muslims in fictional and factual media; they mutually reinforce an overall pejorative image of Islam. Differences are frequently emphasised between Muslims and Westerners; Muslims tend to be defined as the ‘other’ or ‘out-group’ and the codes and conventions employed allow a limited scope for identification or empathy with Muslims. They are not seen to be engaged in normal human activity, seem to have no regard for human life (their own or that of others) and are depicted as highly involved in acts of violence and terrorism. There is a general lack of context in the representation of the crises and conflicts involving Muslims and, thus, they tend to be shown as irrational and intolerant people who cannot be negotiated with and must be met with force. Consequently, the media has established fertile ground for propaganda in support of war against Muslim countries as in the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, in order to establish a causal relationship between media coverage of Islam and public attitudes towards Muslims, content analysis alone is insufficient. To understand media effects audience analysis is necessary. Research by Tanja Dreher documents a climate of fear and insecurity in the months immediately following the 9/11 attacks. The reporting of 9/11 is considered to have produced a crisis in community relations between Muslims and the wider society in Australia. Verbal and physical attacks on Muslims, and those of ‘Muslim appearance’, were considered to be ‘racially and religiously’ motivated and in turn produced a climate of fear among Arabs and Muslims in Australia. The predominant attitude underlying the attacks was that Arabs and Muslims were not Australians and were not welcome in the country. Dreher’s study identified a widespread perception in the community that media reporting was a central contributor to a climate of inter-community tension and racist violence.⁶

In order to investigate the relationship between the negative reporting of Islam and violence, discrimination and socio-economic marginalisation of Muslims, empirical research is required to test the public’s knowledge of Islam and attitudes towards Muslims. In this regard, researchers such as Kevin Dunn have made significant progress. A study published by Dunn in 2005 shows that only one-fifth of the Australians surveyed had a knowledge of Islam that was ‘reasonable or better’, and that half of those he surveyed knew ‘a little’ about the faith. One-third of respondents were completely ignorant of Islam’s teachings. The respondents’ lack of knowledge of Islam was related to feelings of being threatened by Islam, with 61 per cent of those with a little knowledge of Islam feeling threatened, dropping to 46 per cent among those with a reasonable or better knowledge of Islam. Demonstrating the importance of direct contact with Muslims in counteracting misconceptions, Dunn’s study reports that fewer than half of the respondents knew any Muslims.⁷

Similar research has also found positive correlations between higher levels of interaction with Muslims, acceptance of Muslims as part of Australian society and opinions that Muslims do not pose a threat to the country. A survey conducted among Australians in 2006 asked respondents about their sources of knowledge, understanding of Islam, interaction with Muslims, degree of acceptance of Muslims, perceptions of Muslims as a threat, and their evaluations of the media and political discourse on Islam and Muslims. The major findings were that 79 per cent rely on the mass media as a primary source of information about Islam and Muslims, and of those 62 per cent rely on television news and current affairs programs. More than half of those surveyed did not have a basic understanding of Islam. While two-thirds of respondents had never met or rarely interact with Muslims, 33 per cent interacted with Muslims occasionally, often or constantly as work colleagues, classmates, neighbours and friends. Among the most surprising finding was that 78 per cent of respondents said they were comfortable with Muslims as part of Australian society and two-thirds did not regard Muslims as a threat to the country.⁸

Part of the explanation for these findings is a perception among respondents that the media lack credibility. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed recognise the media representation of Islam and Muslims as sensational, biased or inaccurate, rather than accurate, objective or fair. Moreover, the potential for media content to have a negative impact on inter-community relations is undermined by higher education levels and interaction between Muslims and the wider society. It seems that in spite of the media being a primary source of information, the potential for pejorative representations of Muslims to generate negative public opinion can be limited to a minority of the population.⁹

In the context of international affairs, however, t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Map
• Introduction
• I Foundations
• II Debates
• III Dilemmas
• Conclusion
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright