Sample English Paper on Western Media against Islam
In the recent past, there has been a significant rise in ant-Muslim sentiments as revealed through news media and commentators. Notably, the relationship between Western and Muslim worlds is now problematic due to the influence of regional political, economic and social development. Moreover, the misunderstanding and preconception appear to grow on both sides even though the media are highly enlightened. In a nutshell, this essay untangles on how the global media typically depicts Islam and Muslim people negatively and the way they are portrayed as violent, fanatical or as extremist community.
Islamophobia, distress of Islam and Muslim people, has escalated with the bombing of the world trade center in New York, the Taliban’s fundamentalist proscription and restriction in Afghanistan and Charlie Hebdo attack in Japan. Additionally, in 2014 negative coverage of Muslim widely spread as the ISIS gained a foothold on Americans news headlines (Said 46). Therefore, attacks have made Western media believe that Islam and Muslim people mostly involve themselves in violence.
In the most clear and systematic study of Hollywood movies made till today, Jack Shaheen median scholar evaluated 100 years Hollywood films which were representing Arabs and Muslims. For instance, it was found that the majority of 900 films he investigated depicted Muslims as brutal, heartless, uncivilized, religious fanatics and others showed how they were terrorizing civilized westerners, mostly Jews and Christians (Said 59).
Today, many Muslims reside in horrible states with dictatorial government that fabricates an environment for ignorance and fanaticism to be cultivated. With unavailability of education, the leaders of these extremist category take an advantage to recruit their mindless puppets into wars that benefit their leaders in many ways such as power, fame and wealth though they veil it in religion liberation and pride (Said 101). A good number of these groups such as Taliban do not have proper information about Islam.
With insignificant number of Muslim religious leaders in the news commentary, ,unsurprisingly, there is no shortage of voices in media that portray Muslims negatively. Report showed that there was a slightly more positive portray of Muslims when Muslim American got featured in the news compared to past years when their numbers were insignificant in news and Muslim coverage became more negative (Said 210).
In the West, within key societies, there are a remarkable number of stereotypes, prejudices and misperceptions regarding Muslim people and Islam as religion. People tend to relate to Muslims as not safe to be around, avoiding to collaborate with them or even to have them as neighbors. Even though, these feelings cannot and do not characterize all westerners, but it is important to understand the role media plays in this situation, bringing tension and mistrust between people. Global and Western Media must change its attitude towards generalizing Islamic world to be a threat, simply judging by the deeds of separated communities or armed groups. Generally, the negative media portray of Muslims needs to be pivoted by widespread knowhow of peace-loving Muslim. True Muslim, like true Christian, sincerely looks forward to the path of holiness to attain union of love and the will of God. However, the murderous and cruel groups, which are portrayed by media, are not true Muslims but deviant of Islam (Said 218). With media’s understanding of the difference between the true spiritual Muslims and aggressive groups, who try to justify their deeds by religion, westerners and Muslim people will finally find their convergence and unity.
Works Cited
Said, Edward W. Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2015.