Media and Islamophobia Influence in the USA Essay

Introduction

The United States of America has a seen a higher level of toxic attitude towards the Muslims in the recent past than ever before. The year 2017, the US marked the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 deadly terrorist attack which left millions of people dead and others sustaining injuries not mentioning the significant others who were maimed for the rest of their lives (BBC News 2018). Despite the efforts being made reconciliatory groups, the fear and hatred towards Muslims and Islam is at the peak and continue to increase instead of decreasing (Aswad 2013). According to Yazbeck and Nader (2014), the negative image portrayed on the media on Muslims has been at the forefront in the spread of Islamophobia which comes in the form of stories that associate violence with Muslims. It is worth noting that violent acts performed by non-Muslims are reported differently in both tone and language (Roland and Julia 2012). The American media cover stories involving Muslims in a way sending messages that people coming from the religion should be feared and everybody should be protected from them. Islamophobia castigated by the American media has been there since time memorial before the 9/11 and it has led to the stigmatization of Muslims by the American non-Islamic society.

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Definition of Islamophobia

Islamophobia is defined as the fear of Islam as religion and its followers. According to Richardson (2004) the characteristics of anti-Muslim hostility include the following:

a. Public attacks on Muslims both verbally and physically

b. The destruction of Mosques, as well as, other Muslim-based infrastructure

c. The rampant and routine hurting prejudices the in-media conversations. People are always writing and making conversation towards Islam about such a manner that would be offensive if such utterances were directed against the non-Muslims such as the Jews or Hindus.

d. Negative images and comments in speeches by the political elite that Muslims do not democracy and the rule of law

e. Prejudices in the recruitment and selection of employees

g. Failure to recognize that majority of Muslims in the US and Britain are living in abject poverty and social exclusion is not new to them.

h. Muslims are not recognized in the British and American constitution now that in Britain discrimination in employment and provision of social amenities along religious lines has been legalized

i. Rules limiting liberties that only affect Muslims

Islamophobia can also be used to mean

i) Islam being viewed as not being flexible to any societal changes

ii) Islam is viewed as an isolated religion which does not have common values with other religions and it does not influence nor get influenced by them.

iii) Apart from being referred to as an inferior religion by Western countries, Islam has earned such funny names as barbaric, primitive, irrational and sexist.

iv) Islam is regarded as a violent and aggressive religion which threatens the peace through terrorism.

v) Islam is a region but the majority of people in the West treat it as a political ideology and therefore used for military motives.

vi) Muslim criticism is treated as the spread of hatred

vii) There is a lot of hostility towards the Muslims and majority of them have experienced exclusion from the rest of the larger community composed of non-Muslims.

History of Islamophobia

Islamophobia is not a new concept and it has been there since Muslims were recognized in the US in the 1980s. The deep-rooted prejudices against the Muslims came into effect after the Iran hostage crisis in the era of the Islamic revolution, as well as, TWA hijacking in Lebanon (Samiei 2010). Mainstream media played an essential in raising awareness of the Muslims in the majority white race. With the attackers of the first Gulf War in the year 1991 and the bombing of the World Trade Centre in York in the year 1993 claiming to be Muslims, many non-Muslims have been on a revenge mission against them (Sunar 2017). Muslims are currently identified with fear and anxiety over terrorism. Following the attack on the World Trade Centre, the New York Times went ahead to publish a story called "Muslims in America. The American Muslims Council conducted a survey to find out how Muslims are viewed by the Americans and the results indicated that 43 percent of the people had held the view of Muslims being religious fanatics and only 23% were on the contrary (Suna 2017). At the same time, some media editorials postulated that the number of Muslims allowed in the US should be reduced to the lowest levels or be prohibited from migrating into the country. Due to the spread of hate against Muslims, the community faced crimes spearheaded by hatred and attacks targeting the Mosques and different places that Muslims use to worship in several states such as Texas, California, and Texas.

At the end of the Cold War, Americans believed that Islam was their next challenge. The bombing of the Oklahoma City was blamed on the Muslims although later it was proved that no Muslim was involved. "Jihad in America" is a documentary that was produced by Steven Emerson shortly after the attack and it was premiered on PBS (Considine 2017). He is the first journalist to associate the Oklahoma bombing with Muslims. Later he confessed before the House International Relations Committee where he said that radicalized Islamic groups offer the most challenging domestic and international-national security threat to law enforcing agencies such as the FB I (Considine 2017). Surprisingly, the American media and public opinion adapted this assertion despite the fact the sources of terrorism were clear to everybody and Muslims were publicly condemned for any violence afterward.

Amjad-Ali (2006) asserts that when some American were held hostage in Iran after the leader of the country popularly known as Shah , Ted Koppel who is a US Newsreader was famous for his everyday reporting of the event. Since it was an election mood, he made the emotions of many American to run high with his late-night news, "Nightline" (Semati 2010). Koppel made the story look like it was the whole of America that was being held captive in Iran instead of a few individuals. As a result of the exaggerated media stories, Islamophobia reached its highest level. From that time to the present day, the American media portrays some sought of stories that involve America and the Arab World as an issue of patriotism.

Said states in his brief overview of the revised version of the book "Covering Islam" he says that fifteen years earlier Muslims had faced heightened prejudice and dire animosity manly due to the special focus is given to them by the US media. The role of Muslims in hijackings and terrorism including plans to blow up buildings and sabotage commercial airliners have been deeply rooted in the American non-Muslim community (Pauly 2015). A group of 'news experts" have emerged and in case of a crisis, they are called upon to spit venom on baseless issues concerning Islam on the news and live television talk shows. According to Said (1997), this makes the situation out of hand by throwing malicious incidents and leading to a false public fear towards the Muslims whose religion means peace. Currently, the unfair generalization about Islam has become the order of the day. It is worth noting that anything that is said about the Muslim mind, character or culture cannot be applied in live discussions about Africans, Jews or Asians (Considine 2017). Movies and Television shows have not been left behind in spreading the negative image about Muslims. It is not uncommon to see Muslims being portrayed in Hollywood movies as villains, terrorists and violent barbarians who have an unquenchable thirst for money, women, and sex.

Media Representation of Muslims Before and after the 911

The presence of Muslims in both cable and print media increased after the 9/11 terror attack. CNN, an example of cable media, aired more than 200 sections concerning the Muslim Americans in the period of approximately six months after the attack (Jackson 2010). Notably, before the attack, Muslims had only 23 sections in the news. Besides, Fox News increased its coverage of the Muslims significantly. The print media was not left behind in increasing the media representation of the Muslims as evidenced by 345 articles pre-9/11 and 1468 articles in the first few months after the massive bombing (Jackson 2010).

As noted, the presence of Muslims in any news coverage cannot be ignored. The manner in which the news is presented leads to the stereotyping of Muslims by the general American population. Majority of the media houses in the US do not provide all aspects and concepts of Islam. Additionally, Edward points out that the American media has not succeeded in representing, as well as explaining correctly the Muslim community to their audience. For example, the Muslim World is seen as the supplier of oil or potential terrorists (Semati 2010). Not even the reporters who have specialized in covering stories from the Arab World are aware of the details, human density and the passion of the Arab Muslim life.

After the events of the year 2001, the American culture has faced a rise in the media-motivated development of myths. A new song was formed by the mainstream media companies, pundits, and politicians from major political parties. "This is a post 9/11 world" was trending on broadcasting media and town-hall meetings (Bayoumi 2011). The Tuesday, 11th September 2001 marked the conclusion of the propaganda of Muslims as terrorists which led to the historical death of many people and destruction of property. The mainstream media reported the events of the catastrophe in the most dramatic and touching terms; however, their efforts were bound to the stock of their frames that together with their fans used to create something of the events. Consequently, the American drama and theatre representation of the events took place and currently the 9/11 dominant notion of the Muslims continues to take a center stage (Watt 2012). The real story behind the 9/11 revolved around the U.S. military and the country's foreign relations but the main story that was making the rounds then was patriotism and heroism of the perpetrators (Kazi 2014). 9/11 continue to be used by politicians, news workers, and other social actors to evoke certain emotions and assumptions among their audiences.

The official 9/11 concept has taken all shapes and forms of a myth. Many people seem to have believed the story about religious holiness to be behind the terror attacks. A significant majority of Americans have been affected by the myth especially those utterly disturbed by the events leading to the bombing. It is a thorny issue which spread due to the influential reaction shapes, as well as, apprehensive taboos. Despite the fact that some element of truth exists to this cliche of important modification, some section of American citizens is in a state of confusion whether such assertions from the media have become self-fulfilling prediction (WilkinsLaflamme 2018). It is an important point of discussion on the aftermath of the USA after the 9/11 events. Mainstream media companies have picked stories from the past of the American history to aid in making certain perceptions among the America people (Watt 2012). As a result, the past events when mixed with the events leading to the 9/11 terror attacks give rise to the exaggerated anger and indignation towards the American Muslim society. The official version of the story has never been proven beyond reas...