Table of Contents
America was built on the values that everyone is created equally, and that everyone deserves to be treated the same way regardless of race, religion, or politics. But it is evident that these values created 244 years ago, are upheld by the American people today. We see children being held in cages at the border, innocent men women and children being shot due to the color of their skin, and other atrocities that were never intended to happen in this country when it was created to be free. But how does word of these incidents get spread? Simply by media such as TV, movies, and social media apps such as Instagram and Facebook. How does the media affect America’s islamophobia?
What is Islamophobia
According to Erik Bleich, Director of International Politics & Economics and Middlebury college (ethos), islamophobia originally began as a concept in the late 1990s by political activists to draw attention to the actions directed at Islam and Muslims in politics in the western hemisphere. Even though islamophobia emerged in 1997, there is still little agreement on its precise meaning. Some utilize the term islamophobia without clearly defining it, while others use it vaguely or generically.
Some choose to describe it as “a social anxiety towards Islam and Muslim culture”(methaphor) or a “rejection of the religious referent… the Muslim religion as an irreducible marker between ‘us’ and ‘them’” (Bleich 181). Even when islamophobia is defined more specifically such as the “fear of Muslims and Islamic faith” or “the fear or dread of Islam or Muslims”, any way describes it, it means the same thing. It all roughly translate to the biased negative opinion of Islam and Muslims. But it’s not like everyone is born with this intolerant view, to has to come from somewhere, somewhere with influence on people. And the “somewhere” is the media.
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Media Culture After 9/11
After the attacks of September 11, the long-established forms of entertainment needed to find a new place in the U.S. entertainment culture. The long standing forms of entertainment needed to find a new place in the U.S. entertainment culture. The fiction and fact mass violence was no longer considered “business causal” (Spigel 235). Potentially trauma promoting films such as Warner Brothers Collateral Damage were cancelled from release, shows such as USA’s The Siege (which entails an Arab plot to bomb New York) was also pulled following the weeks of the horrific events.
While at the TBS station, movies such as Lethal Weapon was replaced with more family friendly films such as Look Who’s Talking. For a while there was an increase in sympathetic portrayals of Muslims and Arabs on television. According to Evelyn Alsultany, a Scholar of contemporary Arab and Muslim American cultural politics and popular culture, if a if a film or drama represented a Muslim or Arab represented a terrorist, the story line usually included a positive representation of and Arab or Muslim to offset the negative depiction.
However, these sympathetic portrayals do the work themselves of justifying discriminatory policies. A TV drama that portrays that is it unfortunate that that the inevitable, unjust treatment that Arabs and Muslims put up with because of a national security crisis. However, due to the common biased scene, it becomes almost casual, and can be seen as a normal thing, and almost justifies the treatment of Muslims as they see on TV.
Also, on news channels you almost only see any representation of Muslims by terrorist groups such as the Islamic state if ISIS or Al-Qaida. It is the small representation of Muslims only as terrorists in television that America sees. The American people aren’t exposed to great Muslims such as Olympic medalist Ibtijaj Muhammad, or Representative Keith Ellison, the first Muslim-American to serve in congress.
In a way it is not entirely the American people’s fault in what they believe, but what they see shapes their beliefs and if all they see is negative representation of Islam and Muslims, then that is all the knowledge they have to base their beliefs off of. If the people are not exposed to positive information about Islam and Muslims, how will the situation improve for either side? (rhetorical question)
Islamophobia after Trump
President Trump came into office with islamophobia as part of his campaign. In an NBC study during December of 2015, the president’s Muslim travel ban had 25 percent of the American people backing it, and according to the march of 2016 survey, support had risen more than 51 percent(logos) (Sunar 48). According to Khaled Beydoun, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and Senior Affiliated Faculty at the University of California-Berkeley Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project, “he [President Trump]delivered what the market demanded, and doubled down on his anti-Muslim rhetoric.
He fed the Islamophobia his loud and angry base demanded, and as indicated by election results, a sizable portion of the silent, white majority.”(imagery). And most worryingly, the government at the time, initiated a political movement again American-Muslims “Trump supporters attacked, harassed, or plotted to kill Muslims during the election cycle, proving a potential link between Trump’s rhetoric and the actions of supporters.(pathos)” (Sunar 48). With the president’s presence in the media, and as America’s leader contains a lot of influence, his opinions on Muslims seem to be a big part of orchestrating Islamophobia in America.
Counter Argument
While America does have small reason to fear Muslims due to the misrepresentation of is Islam due to the reporting of Islamic terroristic groups in the media. But that does not give reason to label all Muslims as a threat to the U.S.!(imperative secentence)
Conclusion
The media has a heavily influence on America’s thoughts and actions. If America is to accept and lose the fear of Islam and Muslims, they need to positively represented in the media such as the new, TV, and books. America claims to be a country built on equality and justice, but in order to keep its word, it needs to think about how it shows its people.
Works Cited
- Alsultany, Evelyn. “Arabs and Muslims in the Media after 9/11: Representational Strategies for a ‘Postrace’ Era.” American Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 1, 2013, pp. 161–169., www.jstor.org/stable/41809552. Accessed 9 Feb. 2020.
- Bleich, Erik. “Defining and Researching Islamophobia.” Review of Middle East Studies, vol. 46, no. 2, 2012, pp. 180–189. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41940895. Accessed 30 Jan. 2020.
- SUNAR, LÜTFİ. “The Long History of Islam as a Collective ‘Other’ of the West and the Rise of Islamophobia in the U.S. after Trump.” Insight Turkey, vol. 19, no. 3, 2017, pp. 35–52. JSTOR,www.jstor.org/stable/41940895. Accessed 30 Jan. 2020.
- Aswad, el-Sayed el-. ‘Images of Muslims in Western scholarship and media after 9/11.’ Digest of Middle East Studies, vol. 22, no. 1, 2013, p. 39+. Gale In Context: Global Issues, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A335922479/GIC?u=j084910002&sid=GIC&xid=be98b1a2. Accessed 30 Jan. 2020.
- Smock, David, and Qamar-ul Huda. Islamic Peacemaking Since 9/11. US Institute of Peace, 2009, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12311. Accessed 30 Jan. 2020.
- TAMNEY, JOSEPH B. “American Views of Islam, Post 9/11.” Islamic Studies, vol. 43, no. 4, 2004, pp. 599–630. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20837376. Accessed 30 Jan. 2020.
- Spigel, Lynn. “Entertainment Wars: Television Culture after 9/11.” American Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 2, 2004, pp. 235–270. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40068195. Accessed 30 Jan. 2020.
