Media Portrayal of Islam

Media has time and time again been regarded as an immensely powerful, yet invisible,
entity.

Throughout history, it has lived up to this title by utilizing its leverage to shift the
mindsets and beliefs of its indulgers, most notably in periods of wartime such as the
Vietnam War. The possibility of media itself waging a war on ideas and groups of
people is one that is often touched upon but seldom fully explored. The reality is that
the past few decades stand as a testament to the fact that the media, knowingly or
ignorantly, has waged a war on identity and the victim is the religion of Islam
accompanied by its followers, otherwise known as Muslims. The media’s use of anti-
Islamic rhetoric is rooted in a misrepresentation of the religion of Islam, which has
produced an unprecedented age of mass hysteria and a perpetuating fear and
generalization of Muslims, otherwise known as Islamophobia.

Media coverage of Islam-related issues has changed dramatically since the beginning
of the new millennium, both in quantity and quality. The events of September 11, 2001,
thrust Islam into the global media forefront: not only did coverage of Islam drastically
increase, particularly in news and entertainment media, but the way in which Islam was
framed by the media changed as well.

The American-led ‘War on Terrorism’ led to an increase in Islamophobia (fear or hatred
of Islam) across the globe. This increase in Islamophobia was in turn reflected in the
way media outlets addressed and stereotyped Muslim populations. While some
deliberately framed Islamic coverage positively in an attempt to counter Islamophobia,
many of the portrayals of Muslims contributed to the formation of harmful Islamic media
stereotypes

Associating Islam with violence is a false impression that the Western public has long
cultivated about this religion. An example of this misconception is that Islam is a religion
spread by the sword, meaning that Muslims went from one end of the world to the other,
conquering nations and forcing the inhabitants to either convert or die. The truth is that
Islam spread through the expansion of the Ottoman empire, not that people were forced
to convert or die. A modern day example of the Islam=violence misconception is SaddamHussein. Although Hussein is of the Islamic faith, not all of his actions necessarilyrepresent Islamic beliefs.