Muslims in British media
{{short description|Representation of British Muslims within the British media}}
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The representation of British Muslims within the British media has been a matter of considerable public concern over recent years. The sociologist Tariq Modood suggests that British Muslims are portrayed as an "alien other" within the media and this misrepresentation paves the way for the development of a "racism", namely, "Islamophobia" which stems from the cultural representations of the "other". The themes of "deviance" and "un-Britishness", Modood continues, are sought in the treatment of British Muslims and Islam and may be related to the issues of Orientalism.
National and international concern
The role of media in representing minorities is highly crucial when audiences are in little contact with them.{{cite book |last=Hall |first=Stuart |date=1978 |title=Policing the Crises |location=London |publisher=Constable }} The sociologist Tariq Modood suggests that British Muslims are portrayed as an "alien other" by British media and this paves the way for the development of "Islamophobia" which stems from the cultural representations of the "other". The themes of "deviance" and "un-Britishness", Modood continues, are also sought in the treatment of British Muslims and Islam.{{cite journal |last1=Saeed |first1=Amir |date=2007 |title=Sociology Compass |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00039.x |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=443–462 |doi= 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00039.x|url-access=subscription }}
British Muslims are heterogeneous, with different ethnic backgrounds, distinguished from other social categories such as "British" or "Christian".{{cite book |last=Poole |first=Elizabeth |date=2002 |title=Reporting Islam: Media Representations of British Muslims |location=London |publisher=I.B. Tauris }} This heterogeneity has been more intertwined with a wide diversity of political, cultural and socioeconomic factors.{{cite web |url=https://www.academia.edu/556464 |title=Remarking Multiculturalism after 7/7 |last=Modood |first=Tariq |date=2005 |website=Open Democracy|access-date=November 24, 2019 }}{{cite book |last=Modood |first=Tariq |date=2006 |title=Multicultural Politics: Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press }} Comprehensive research studies accomplished in the UK on the concept of "national identity" reveal that minority groups in the UK are thought of "un-British".{{cite book |last=Gilroy |first=Paul |date=1992 |chapter=The End of Antiracism |title='Race', Culture and Difference |location=London |publisher=Sage |pages=49–61 }} Recent cultural debates and round-table discussions held by Media experts in a quest for knowing "who is and who is not British" have also attached more significance to the theme of minority marginalization in the media.{{cite book |last=Cottle |first=Simon|author-link=Simon Cottle (writer) |date=2006 |title=Mediatized Conflict |location=Buckingham |publisher=Open University Press }}{{cite book |last=Fekete |first=Liz |date=2002 |title=Racism, the Hidden Cost of September 11 |location=London |publisher=Institute of Race Relations }}
West and the rest
Professor Edward Said's metaphorical expression of "a double-edged sword" signifies that how the media in its representation of minority groups first "marginalize minority voices", then, they are "virtually ignored or invisible".{{cite journal |last1=Saeed |first1=Amir |date=2002 |title=The Media and New Racisms |journal=Media Education Journal |volume=27 |pages=19–22 }} This misrepresentation is backed by negative discourses giving in practice a false account of the minorities.{{cite book |last1=Hartman |first1=Paul |last2=Husband |first2=Charles |date=1974 |title=Racism and the Mass Media |location=London |publisher=Dans-Poynter }} According to Said the press portrayal of British Muslims as the "alien within British culture" dates back to the rise of Western imperialism from which a political dichotomy of "West" versus "East" was constructed.{{cite book |last=Said |first=Edward |date=1978 |title=Orientalism |location=London |publisher=Penguin }}
In his book Orientalism Said explores the relationships between the "West" and the "Rest" and Muslims in particular.{{rp|286–287}} Focusing on the Middle East as a transcontinental region he exposes how in power relations and dynamics a sharp difference is observed between "the familiar Europe or the West and the strange, the Orient or the East".{{cite journal |last1=Said |first1=Edward |title=Orientalism Reconsidered |journal=Race and Class |year=1985 |volume=27 |issue= 2|pages=1–15 |doi= 10.1177/030639688502700201|s2cid=220914425 }}
A complexity of reasons, media experts say, must be considered to understand why the Western media have taken an "unsympathetic" stance on Muslims or Islam.{{cite book |date=2006 |editor1-last=Poole |editor1-first=Elizabeth |editor2-last= Richardson |editor2-first=John |title=Muslims and the News Media |location=London |publisher=I.B. Tauris }} Said found one problem in connection with the narrator rather than the narrative. He argues the West has its "own experts" and commentators to represent the East, since "they are not representing themselves".{{cite book |last=Said |first=Edward |date=1981 |title=Covering Islam |location=London |publisher=Routledge }}
Akbar Ahmed, American-Pakistani author and analyst, has noted that the negative representation of Islam and Muslims by the Western media is increasingly growing after such incidents as the Rushdie affair, the first Gulf War and 9/11 attacks.
Media and race
Academic studies demonstrate a strong correlation between the challenges associated with "immigration and asylum" and the fundamental concepts of race and nation, as portrayed in the British media.{{cite book |last1=Finney |first1=Nissa |last2=Peach |first2=Esme |date=2004 |title=Attitudes Towards Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Other Immigrants: A Literature Overview for the Commission for Racial Equality |location= London |publisher=ICAR/CRE }} The concept of nation in Western terminology implies "a national culture ethnically pure and homogeneous in its whiteness",{{rp|53}} but the existence of non-white communities within the White society, Saeed argues, has semantically deconstructed the conventional norms of social integrity.{{cite book |last1=Saeed |first1=Amir |date=2004 |chapter=9/11 and the Consequences for British-Muslims |editor1-last=Morland |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Carter |editor2-first=David |title=Anti-Capitalist Britain |location=Manchester |publisher= New Clarion Press }}
Journalist Roy Greenslade claims that Britain raises concern about the emergence of a multi-cultural "non-white society" in its approach to the questions of "asylum and immigration". Throughout the years the word minorities have been presented by the media in a derogatory sense as they are usually connected with the negative themes of "conflict, controversy and deviance".{{cite journal |last1=Cottle |first1=Simon |date=2002 |title="Race", Racialization and the Media: A Review and Update of Research |journal=Sage Race Relations Abstracts |volume=17 |pages=3–57 }}
Today we are witnessing the rise of an institutional "racism", which has in core a concern about such issues as "Islamic fundamentalist terrorism", "asylum seekers" and "illegal refugees". This dynamic form of racism can be adapted to different situations and circumstances.{{cite book |last=Mason |first=David |date=2000 |title=Race and Ethnicity in Modern Britain |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press }}{{cite book |last=Solomos |first=John |date=2003 |title=Race and Racism in Britain |location=Basingstoke |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan }}
American political scientist Samuel Huntington in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order explicates "Islamic fundamentalism" is not the main concern for the West. It is in fact Islam, "a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture" and that how they are afraid of losing their power. On the same principle, Hartmann and Husband suggest that it is not "race" but "racism" that has caused a problem for the UK and its media.{{rp|44}}
Islam, British writer Ziauddin Sardar concludes, has refused to comply with the West in implementing the "universal project of globalization" characterized by Western values.{{cite book |last=Sardar |first=Ziauddin |date=1999 |title=Orientalism |location=Buckingham |publisher=Open University Press }} This refusal is highly symptomatic of a constant threat to the "Western's free and democratic World".{{rp|456}}