A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Muslims in media |
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| BroHanif |
| 06/24/02 at 19:08:28 |
| http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,742992,00.html Worst impressions Both Muslims and the media should address their attitudes towards each other, which are often based on inaccurate stereotypes, says Brian Whitaker Monday June 24, 2002 A few days before the planes hit the Twin Towers last September, I was preparing a talk about the reporting of Islam in the British media. As part of the research, I ran a computer check to see how many articles containing the word "Muslim" had appeared in our daily newspapers during the previous 12 months. The total was 3,075 - an average of one per paper per day - but I found some big differences between the papers. These were the results: Guardian: 817 Independent: 681 Times: 535 Daily Telegraph: 417 Daily Mail: 202 Daily Mirror: 164 Daily Express: 139 Sun: 80 Daily Star: 40 To find the four "serious" broadsheet papers at the top of the list was scarcely surprising, since they contain more international news than the others. The word "Muslim" occurs mostly in an international context rather than a British one - and, according to one study, international stories may account for as many as 85% of its occurrences in newspapers. So, as a rule of thumb, the more international news you report, the more Muslims are mentioned. At the bottom end of the list, the popular tabloids not only have less international news but different priorities - among them a penchant for celebrity gossip. There are very few Muslim celebrities in Britain, though boxers who happen to be Muslims are sometimes asked about their religion on the sports pages. More difficult to explain were the differences between newspapers in similar categories. Among the broadsheets, for instance, the Guardian and the Independent mentioned Muslims significantly more often than the Times and the Daily Telegraph. Among the tabloids, the Mirror talked about Muslims twice as often as the Sun, while the Sun talked about them twice as often as the Daily Star. I suspect that in some newspaper offices Islam is not seen as a topic that interest readers (or at least wasn't before September 11). There are echoes here of a situation that prevailed 30 or more years ago, when editors assumed that none of their readers were black, gay or ever indulged in illicit drugs - and therefore covered such issues only when they were thought to pose some kind of threat to the values that their papers held dear. I was reminded of these figures last week because of a conference, entitled "The West and Islam in the Media", that was taking place at the Central London Mosque, and I decided to repeat the computer search, again covering a 12-month period but this time including the nine months since September 11. The changes were dramatic. I found 8,806 articles containing the word "Muslim" (or "Moslem" as the Daily Mail insists on spelling it). The overall increase was 286% but the biggest increases were among the tabloids - 658% in the Sun and 561% in the Daily Mirror. Here is the full list: Guardian: 2,043 (+250%) Independent: 1,556 (+228%) Times: 1,486 (+278%) Daily Telegraph: 1,176 (+282%) Daily Mirror: 920 (+561%) Daily Mail: 650 (+322%) Sun: 526 (+658%) Daily Express: 305 (+219%) Daily Star: 144 (+360%) What we can safely conclude from this is that newspaper readers, on average, are far more aware of Islam now than they were before September 11 - though that does not necessarily mean they understand it any better. The question is whether this extra attention is working to their detriment or benefit. A report from Saudi Arabia a few days ago, apparently working on the principle that all publicity is good publicity, cheerfully claimed that 942 foreigners living in the kingdom had converted to Islam last year - 709 of them after September 11. But it was not clear if this dramatic increase really had anything to do with September 11, since conversions are often linked to marriage. What worries British Muslims particularly is that the average non-Muslim's impression of Islam is shaped mainly by new reports about Palestinians and Afghanistan, and that this is adversely affecting perceptions of their community in Britain. There is certainly some anecdotal evidence to support their argument: it doesn't take much investigation to find tales of British Muslims being ostracised since September 11 by non-Muslims who were once regarded as friends, or of Muslim children being branded as terrorists in the school playground. Shortly after the Palestinian uprising began, I met a young British Muslim who came to the Guardian's office complaining about some pictures we had published. One was of a funeral procession in Gaza, and it showed among the mourners a number of men in black hoods who were brandishing guns. He argued that this gave a bad impression of Islam and would frighten our readers. I replied that this was a case of blaming the messenger: the men had clearly intended to look frightening - probably to alarm the Israelis and to encourage defiance among the Palestinians. One of the main debates at last week's conference in London was on the theme: "The West and the Muslim World: Cooperation or Confrontation". Mike O'Brien, a minister at the Foreign Office, gave an opening speech that was clearly in the cooperation camp. "Today Islam is a mainstream British religion," he said. "We cannot allow a 'clash of civilisations' or even the perception of one, in the heart of our own society... "The UK has nearly 2 million Muslim citizens. It has more than 1,500 mosques. It has Muslim members of parliament, members of the House of Lords, writers, sportsmen, diplomats, policemen, soldiers." He continued: "There have been conflicts between Muslim countries and those of the west; there have also been many wars where western countries, including Britain, have fought on the side of Muslims." This, however, was not a view shared by everyone at the conference, which was organised by the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (the Islamic countries' equivalent of Unesco) and the Muslim Council of Britain. A "working paper" presented by ISESCO highlighted the history of confrontation and colonisation which, it said, has influenced western perceptions of Islam. Criticising western stereotypes of Islam, it countered with a long series of Muslim stereotypes characterising the western media: sensationalism, bias, distortion, misrepresentation, smears and so on. Announcing a mid-morning break, one of the organisers apologised "to the journalists present" the mosque was unable to offer anything stronger to drink than tea. A considerate thought maybe, but a stereotype, nonetheless. There is clearly a two-way problem here, in which both Muslims and the media should address their attitudes towards each other. As far as British newspapers are concerned, one only has to read a fairly small selection of articles to identify at least four very persistent stereotypes. These tell us that Muslims are: (a) intolerant; (b) misogynistic; (c) violent or cruel; (d) strange or different. Under the "intolerant" heading we find words such as stern, severe, harsh, puritanical. The last thing you would expect Muslims to do is laugh, enjoy themselves or tell jokes. The image of violence and cruelty is not just related to terrorism. Last June, for instance, the Daily Express congratulated itself on winning an award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - for exposing "the cruel slaughter of British sheep in Paris to celebrate the Moslem [sic] festival of Eid el Kebir". The idea that Muslims are strange or different crops up in all sorts of places. For example, you find travel articles describing some exotic place where the sound of "wailing" can be heard coming from the mosque. In travel articles about Muslim countries you'll find many of the attitudes and cliches that were condemned many years ago in Edward Said's book, Orientalism. Stereotypes are inherently unfair because they make sweeping generalisations, but the difficulty is that they often contain an element of truth. Much as British Muslims may protest that Islam is a peaceful religion, their case is not helped by the minority who behave otherwise. The fiery British preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri is one who has spent years cultivating an image that perfectly fits the Daily Mail's ideal of a Muslim fanatic. Newspapers can go to the trouble of pointing out - as some do these days - that "jihad" means religious struggle and does not necessarily involve violence. But, again, they are not helped by violent groups who adopt the word "Jihad" as part of their name. Journalists cannot be blamed for reporting atrocities committed in the name of Islam, nor, for the most part, do we report these things out of "sensationalism". But, at the same time, we have to be careful not to spread false impressions about Islam as a whole. In many ways the problems between British Muslims and the media are very similar to those that were addressed several decades ago regarding black Britons - and this gives some pointers to a solution. We tend to write about Muslims mainly when they cause trouble. We can try harder to handle these stories sensitively, but we can't stop writing them. What we can do is balance the negative coverage with what the Americans would call "affirmative action". In other words, we can make a point of writing about Muslims, at least some of the time, in a non-violent, non-threatening context. Several papers have already made a move in this direction: a few months ago the Daily Telegraph published an excellent special supplement on Islam, and the Guardian has just completed a week-long series of articles under the title "Muslim Britain". Another way to counter the stereotypes is to have more Muslims working in newspapers, radio and television. Over the last few years, most media organisations in Britain have made serious efforts to recruit black journalists, and we should do the same for Muslims. Nor should Muslims be deterred from applying, despite the widespread belief (stereotypes again) that journalism is an alcoholic profession. |
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