In Good Faith: Portrayals of Islam in the Media
Published November 11, 2006
Religion is there also in the many customs and holy festivals: nearly all of my colleagues will observe the fast at Ramadan, eating nothing from sunrise to sundown, joining together for a family meal before evening prayers. Or in daily observance: some male colleagues of mine go to pray five times a day, using the mosque or prayer room found in every institution.
But the picture is neither uniform nor static: there are also plenty who don’t go to pray. I have a number of friends who are avowedly secular and even anti-clerical. All in all it’s a pretty laid-back place, where you practise at a level of your own choosing, not dictated to by the imposition of orthodox or fundamentalist belief. Colleagues of mine who are Hindu might beg to differ, and there are certainly ancient prejudices lurking beneath the surface, but there is very little communal violence today of the sort which marked the birth pangs of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, those Islamic students or elders who do have a more fundamentalist interpretation are given scant respect by most of the people I know, despite the inroads they have made to political power. And the whole country rejoiced when the most notorious religious extremist, whose nickname was Bangla Bhai (Bangla Brother), was caught recently in a police raid.
Nothing extreme then. Nothing to be alarmist about. The media is obsessed with those who preach and proclaim the ‘truth’ of Islam, and concentrates on the outlandish personalities, the orthodoxies, the narrow interpretations, the perceived ‘mediaevalism’ and ‘inflexibility’ of the faith. But all that is a long way from people’s experience here, as they go about their daily lives, looking out for each other, complaining about the government, dodging cars, getting food on the table and kids into school. They care as much for dogma as your average Saturday shopper back home worries about the meaning of the Trinity.
In fact the question of whether religions are true seems almost irrelevant in this context. People observe religions not just because they represent ‘revealed truth’ (an abstract concept for most), but because for them religion seems to work, just as it worked for their forefathers. That’s what sustains religious belief and practice the world over.
Of course there are powerful forces at work at the top of religious hierarchies, which historically have enforced observance, but that is unsustainable in today’s anti-authoritarian age. (Look at Italy, where otherwise empty pews are dotted with ancient women dressed in black saying their rosary). And while it may be difficult culturally for individuals to opt out completely of religious practice or belief within a traditional community, whole generations can and do drift away. (As in Britain, preferring to worship these days at the altar of B&Q.) By contrast, it continues to thrive where people still willingly buy into it. (Poland, for example, where there is still standing room only at Sunday mass, or Russia, experiencing its own resurgence of religious expression.)
- In Good Faith: Portrayals of Islam in the Media
- Published: November 11, 2006
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: Religion, Culture: Society
- Writer: Andrew Morris
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Now, I disagree that the media is remotley anti-Islamic, its reporting truth - organizations like CNN, New York Times, BBC are so biased against Bush that they would love to be able to say there isn't a war waging against EXTREMIST Muslims ... but they can't - every time they mention it, they make sure to say RADICAL ISLAM, MUSLIM EXTREMISTS, heck some times they avoid saying anything but TERRORIST.
Even Fox News does the things above ... if anything I'd say the media is scared of RADICAL Islam (or even the "moderates" that protest around Europe).
What a coverup! The problem with Islam is not that all muslims are not angels, but that the islamic society is unwilling or unable to rid itself of devils.
If muslims who proclaim "you can't blame us all for the actions of a few" had the will and strength to bring OBL and other malefactors to justice and reform the devilish cults in their religion, then they would have more respect. But they just let those guys run wild. And the result is that non-muslims hear those words as just an excuse.
By contrast, a US soldier who rapes and kills an Iraqi person is arrested and tried in court. Why can't muslims do the same with the killers who reach out to kill non-muslims? The answer, I'm afraid, is that Islam tells them not to, and THAT is your problem.
I watch with increasing despair liberals defending multiculturalism even as it is openly destroying the fiber of Western Civilization. I also watch with despair people like Morris defending Islam without reading the Quran, the Hadiths, and ignoring thousands of acts of brutality across the globe. I guess Darfur is not really happening. It is a negative portrayal of Muslims by the Western Media. The fact that in Saudi Arabia no religion is legal outside of Islam and anyone who practices their faith publicly faces a possibility of torture or death is a creation of the media. People who leave Islam face death, often at the hands of their own family members. Female circumcision, which made its disgusting appearance in U.S. where a father cut out his two year old daughter's clitoris with a pair of scissors, practice popular across the Muslim world, is also a creation of the media. Three Christian girls in Indonesia on the way to Sunday school where hacked to pieces with machetes, but that also is a creation of the Western media. A priest shot to death in a Church by a 14 year old Muslim Turk as a protest to Danish cartoons is also a creation of the media. Three Coptic Christians being stabbed in a Church during Easter celebrations is also...you know what. List of barbaric behavior in the name of Islam is countless, and it seems that it is becoming increasingly sadistic. The fact that over 70% of British Muslims want some form of Sharia law to be implemented in England, is indicative of how Muslims not only refuse to assimilate and respect the host country, they want to impose medieval laws incompatible with the Western Society. I guess statements like this one by an Islamic leader are a creation of "armchair commentators":
"Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." - Omar Ahmad Co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
Please do not pee on my shoes and tell me it is raining. Stop with your self-destructing political correctness and wake up to the world around you.
Andrews comments are a breath of fresh air. What worries me ( I am Muslim) is how far Andrew is willing to take his sympathy towards Islam. Would you support me if I wanted Sharia? Muslims (in a world context) are the poorest in the world and all Muslim countries are categorised as Third World countries. What kind of threat can such a weak people pose to the powers that be? They are hardly homogeneous. They are so different to each other. They are not one united body as some people mistakenly think. With regards to Islam coming to conquer, anyone heard of the battle of ideas? That is what it really is and nothing more - A battle of talk if you like. If Islam is such a bad thing, then why are so many people coming to the faith. Is it possible that the flaws in democratic or secular societies have something to do with this? No one is being forced to come to Islam? A neighbour of mine recently said that he felt like an "empty bottle". He wants to believe in something but society is trying to tell him that that is not right. With regards to so called "extremists or terrorists" the question we need to ask is what made them this way? How many times do you slap someone before they react? And it has nothing to do with being jealous of "our freedom or values" as Bush would have us believe but basic injustice. The way to defeat the real terrorists on our side is theological argument. How are we to deal with the terrorists Bush and Blair? How long will the world allow these people and their partners to cause death and destruction in their name? A strong Islam would be good for the world. Hard to believe but I think true. The Greeks, Bulgarians, Hungarians and others lived under Islamic rule (under the Ottomans) and kept to their faith and also had high office. Please check the history books (not the orientalists). None of us have anything to do with OBL and know about as much about him as anyone else. Can we not try to just understand one another? Is there anyone out there ready for an open and frank discussion? Insults go nowhere - on both sides. We can all enjoy football, cricket, working together and getting used to each other (Niqab or not), although I would certainly not go out for a drink, which I am sure most people would understand.
Andy Jarmoc quotes, "'Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.' - Omar Ahmad Co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations."
This is an example of different streams of Islam being dominated and taken over by the false messages of the Wahhabi upstarts who seized Mecca and Medina from the Hashemi family, its traditional protectors. It is this philosophy that is pissing on Andy Jarmoc's shoes.
While Mr. Andrews' article articulates well the living Islam in Dar al Islam (the parts of the world where Islam is normative), Omar Ahmad accurately represents the philosophy of "my way or the highway" that the Wahhabi upstart fake "Islam" puts forth as its philosophy for world domination.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that Saudi oil money more and more causes the piss of this fake Islam to dominate and pervert the real streams of the real Islam. We see this in Iraq, we are seeing it in the proposed coöperation between HizbAllah (Shia), Al Qa'eda (Wahhabi), and Hamas (Sunni Islam perverted by Wahhabi propaganda) in this neck of the woods.
There is indeed a war of ideas within Islam, and the annoying habit of the western media of misnaming everything and misrepresenting everything (what the hell is "Islamo-fascism" but another name for the Wahhabi philosophy espoused by CAIR in America, Al Qaeda and the Saudi royals here, and the Taliban in Afghanistan?) confuses the issue entirely, and hides the real war of ideas, the one going on in Islam itself.
Religion is the cause of a lot of evil. It is unfortunate, but we can all see that Islam is the main cause of a lot of suffering in the world. Where Sharia Law is supreme, you see women degraded and human dignity trampled upon.
I say we march on, this is the 21st century after all. Epicurus in the 3rd century posed this. 24 centuries later, we are still ignorant.
The Riddle of Epicurus
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
In response to Sohaib Sandhu. A lot of people are coming into the faith, a lot of these are people from prison who are blinkered into terrorism with reward of 72 virgins in paradise.
As to why the faith is growing, it is because it is like the mafia or triad or yakuza, once you are in, you can't get out, on pain of at best ostracism and at worst, death. You can't even speak out anymore.
A real concern is the Islamic way of dealing with other faiths, there are only 3 and Muslims all know this.
1. Convert to Islam,
2. become 2nd class citizens (treatment depends on the location, in some locations tolerable, in many places not, and if you look at the Islamic world now, it is not looking good - Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Malaysia and Indonesia increasingly, etc.) or
3. die!!!
In the Islamic world, they still teach hatred of the Jews as a matter of fact. Jews are not humans but pigs and monkeys deserving of no human dignity. Once all Jews are killed, Christians are next in line then all the rest.
So, you are wondering why the rest of the world is scared?
I am really concerned about a nuclear Iran or a Pakistan which falls into fundamentalist hands. This is not good news if it happens. When you have a people who is not scared of dying, who in fact revel in it as it is a ticket into heaven (again with 72 virgins), then the cold war rationality of MAD (mutual assured destruction) which prevented the world from being blown up does not apply anymore. The human race is likely to go extinct.
Oh, that Brave Pope!
Whoops...
Wait a minute...
Did he apologize?
Gadammit! I wish he hadn't done that. It was just gettin' interesting...
Look, I have no illusions about Islam.
I don't make the MOST common mistake of both liberals and conservatives: I don't assume Islam is similar to Christianity and/or other major religions, ie. diverse, evolving, adapting to social and cultural changes, relatively tolerant, open, etc.
It's not. It ain't. It don't.
Unlike the bleeding-heart Liberals and the Opportunistic, Oil-Addicted Conservatives -- I don't talk about "moderate Muslims". There are no "moderate" Muslims. That's an oxymoron. The only moderate or seemingly tolerant Muslims are those who live in America, France, England, or Germany -- next door to a Westerner who has bigger guns, more friends, or some other type of security ADVANTAGE.
And they only appear tolerant.
For the moment.
The Problem for me is -- at least politically/philosophically: no one in American politics is really speaking for me in this Islamic terrorist debate.
The LEFT thinks:
1) America did some really nasty shit in the past that pissed a lot of people off;
2) Islam -- like their own weekly Unitarian Love-Fests -- permits "moderates" and "poetic interpretations" -- and is therefore a "religion of peace"
The RIGHT thinks:
1) We didn't do shit to CAUSE MURDEROUS, CIVILIAN-KILLING, TERRORISTIC ANIMOSITY among the Muslims; as a matter of fact, we're only tryin' to help their medieval asses out of the Dark Ages;
2) And because BUSH, et al -- are such OPPORTUNISTIC PIGS -- who couldn't give a rat's ass about the real FUTURE health of this nation and Her people -- but would simply LIKE TO REMAIN IN POWER -- they, like the Pope, think they have to continually trot out this conciliatory BULLSHIT LIE that Islam is really a "religion of peace" and that the ONLY problem is a handful of Bad Seeds.
IRONICALLY:
The LEFT is CORRECT on their #1 -- but it's irrelevant to the Islamic terrorist issue!
The RIGHT is CORRECT on their #1 -- but it's also irrelevant to the Islamic terrorist issue!
-- AND THEY'RE BOTH WRONG on #2 -- because... [ya sittin' down?] ...a major tenet of Islam is the killing [or conversion] of Infidels. Yep. There. I said it.
The Pope knows it. He almost said it. But he chickened out.
Like every American politician and pundit, the Pope is more worried about keeping his job than Telling The Truth. He'd rather have a calm, quiet day than publicly admit Islam commands believers to kill yer Infidel Ass -- but I warn all of ya: don't get too comfy with the religious metaphors and the conciliatory "dialogues".
That's right, read it again:
a major tenet of Islam is the killing [or conversion] of Infidels.
It's written in the Koran.
In black & white.
Read on if ya don't think so:
"Slay them wherever you find them. Drive them out of the places from which they drove you. Idolatry is worse that carnage." -- 2: 190
"Believers, if you yield to the infidels, they will drag you back to unbelief and you will return headlong to perdition... We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers... The fire shall be their home..." -- 3: 149-151
"Those that deny our revelation -- we will burn in fire. No sooner will their skins be consumed than we shall give them other skins so that they may truly taste the scourge." -- 4:55-56
"Believers, do not seek friendship of the infidels and those who were give the Book before you, who have made of your religion a jest and a pastime." -- 5:57
Not exactly "Love thy Brother as Thyself" eh? No, it's a handbook for intolerant, violent, medieval sociopaths with an ancient, cultural Inferiority Complex -- nothing more, nothing less. It not only condones killing innocents and infidels, but makes it a point of pride.
...pride, hell -- it's A QUICK, EASY WAY TO GET TO PARADISE!
Where one will stay, um... Forever.
Paradise + Eternity: Man, that's a long time in a great place!
And believe me: for some barely employed guy who rarely gets any pussy -- and spends his long, idle days around a lot of sweaty, unshaven men in some god-forsaken, sun-baked desert hell-hole, "ETERNAL PARADISE" is PRETTY FRIGGIN' ATTRACTIVE.
So I have no illusions about Islam. We're dealing with a new paradigm here, something we've never encountered before in recorded history (okay, except maybe for those wacky Japanese Kamikaze Dwarfs who flew WINGED BOMBS into U.S. Naval ships in 1944-45. And believe me, they scared the Holy Shit out of the American military strategists! "Suicide bombers?! WHAAAT!?")
So this is mostly new.
And as to "moral clarity" -- that goes out the friggin' window. That goes on the historical dump heap where we buried the Sermon on the Mount, Turn the Other Cheek, and our old obsolete strategy for the Cold War, ie "M.A.D." ie, Mutually Assured Destruction.
For 50 years, nobody pushed the Little Red Button because -- "after work" -- the Ruskies wanted a glass of vodka and a piece of babushka ass just as badly as the Americans wanted a martini and a blow-job from a chubby intern.
Guess what: those "carrots" don't work any more.
Muslims want a fiery death, a free trip to Paradise, and a harem of horny "dark-eyed" beauties. At least that's what Mohammed PROMISED 'em.
So bullshit, El Papa! Screw Mohammed. Screw the Muslims. You don't trust 'em cause you've read THEIR BOOK!
But still, my fellow Americans, Who Can WE Trust to take on these suicidal nuts?
The LIBERALS think the Muslims can be AS TOLERANT AS THEY ARE -- like Daniel Barrigan after smoking a joint in front of the Pentagon.
And CONSERVATIVES are too opportunistic and enamored with oil and legislative power to call Islam in public -- what they call it in private.
But I gotta tell ya, kids, the conservatives -- with their inherent XENOPHOBIA and LACK of MORALS -- might be the ONLY ones to bet on in this cosmic, worldwide KILL-or-be-KILLED dogfight. They won't hesitate to drop the Big One on IRAN if they have to -- even with 75 MILLION people as "collateral damage"; if nothing else, they're pretty thin in the ol "conscience" department -- and that could come in mighty handy in the next few years.
The problem with my liberal/leftist comrades: they have a Conscience -- and in the new battle with Islam, that's become a liability; they can't wrap their imaginations around "kill or be killed". I'm sorry, but That's The Way It Is, so what was once a Virtue has become a Vice.
I know it's a bummer: "Peace, Love, and Flowers -- meet your new neighbor, Mr. Jihad."
Welcome to my world.
Welcome to the Chinese Curse: "May you live in interesting times."
And welcome to the 21st Century.
I have noticed that since the year 2000, the world has got worse every year eg 9/11 in 2001, Afghanistan casualties in 2003 (both Afghan and American), Iraq in 2004 (casualties are still happening), London bombs in 2005 and Lebanon this year. I seriously wish that people were nicer to each other and there was world peace but this is just a fantasy. Im from the UK and British media only mention Muslims and Islam in associations with negative and bad things. This makes some people generalise and generalisation in my opinion is evil. Some Americans and Europeans see Islam as evil and backwards. Some Middle Eastern Muslims see the 'West' as corrupt and decadent. Some people think people with glasses are clever even though they might not be.
People often say that Muslims don't integrate into society, but in Britain many young Muslims just care about having fun and being happy yet they still be religious. Some Muslims do make friends with white people and they don't want to kill and destroy. But most of the Muslims aren't evil and most terrorists and extremists aren't 'proper' Muslims because firstly they kill themselves to kill innocent people and Islam says that suicide and killing innocents is a path to hell. They probably do this either because they get brainwashed by some cleric or they take the verses of the Quran literally and kill 'disbelievers.' I don't want to kill anybody and I could never hurt anybody and there are quite a lot of Muslims like this. It is unfair that people say that all Muslims are evil to the core, of course there are bad Muslims but there are opposites to everything and there are good honest Muslims. The main acts of Muslims are to pray 5 times a day (although you don't have to), fast in Ramadan and go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. It teaches to preserve life and the violent verses in the Quran should only be considered in self defence. Also hardly anyone in Britain has guns (except criminals) and there is no reason for Muslims to be scared or Westerners and no Muslims 'act' tolerant, they are tolerant!
I believe that people should be nice to each other, defeat the terrorists by not being scared and that Muslims shouldn't embrace extremism. And ignore what the mad clearics say!
Everything that needed to be said has been said so I think I will only add something I think might be of some value to the people who have taken some precious time out of their lives to contribute here.
Firstly a few correction of facts. God knows where SHARK got his copy of the Quran. Me, I am a muslim who has a few copies at home. The corrected text quoted by Shark is as below:
"And fight in the Way of Allâh those who fight you, but transgress not the limits. Truly, Allâh likes not the transgressors." (2:190)
149.O you who believe! If you obey those who disbelieve, they will send you back on your heels, and you will turn back (from Faith) as losers.150. Nay, Allâh is your Maulâ (Patron, Lord, Helper and Protector, etc.), and He is the Best of helpers.151.We(Allah,God) shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, because they joined others in worship with Allâh, for which He had sent no authority; their abode will be the Fire(in the after life) and how evil is the abode of the Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrongdoers). (3:149-151)
55. Of them were (some) who believed in him (Muhammad SAW), and of them were (some) who averted their faces from him (Muhammad SAW); and enough is Hell for burning them(in the after life).56. Surely! Those who disbelieved in Our Ayât (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) We(Allah,God) shall burn them in Fire(in hell). As often as their skins are roasted through, We shall change them for other skins that they may taste the punishment. Truly, Allâh is Ever Most Powerful, AllWise.(We is Allah, God, not muslims) (4:55-56)
O you who believe! Take not for Auliyâ' (protectors and helpers) those who take your religion for a mockery and fun from among those who received the Scripture (Jews and Christians) before you, nor from among the disbelievers; and fear Allâh if you indeed are true believers. (5:57)
Now there does seem to be a bit of a difference in what is written and what was quoted. (Original text is in Arabic)....copied here for convenience SHARK wrote:
"It's written in the Koran.
In black & white.
Read on if ya don't think so:
"Slay them wherever you find them. Drive them out of the places from which they drove you. Idolatry is worse that carnage." -- 2: 190
"Believers, if you yield to the infidels, they will drag you back to unbelief and you will return headlong to perdition... We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers... The fire shall be their home..." -- 3: 149-151
"Those that deny our revelation -- we will burn in fire. No sooner will their skins be consumed than we shall give them other skins so that they may truly taste the scourge." -- 4:55-56
"Believers, do not seek friendship of the infidels and those who were give the Book before you, who have made of your religion a jest and a pastime." -- 5:57"
Black and white????...I thought Americans had done away with racism and the KKK was finished?
My opinion is that refering back to the original text, the media is smearing the image of Islam. It is working to the extent where people ignorant of the religion are willing to misquote anything and everything, which makes you think....maybe the media is succeeding.
I write this from an muslim air-conditioned room, provided by my effort at a good job, amongst muslim chicks wearing jeans, so guess what? not quiet the sunbaked desert hell hole now is it???
Last thought...the west is having a hard time dealing with this cause Americans and Europeans are afraid of dying.....death is inevitable.....why the fear of dying.....think you will live forever???Everyone has got to go....sooner or later.
Lose this fear of death and you shall know how to address this extremism that is uncomprehendable to you.
Personally, i have no problem with muslims or any other religon coming into our country. I have no problem with foreign people entering our country, as long as its only a few of them. I repeat, a FEW of them. But our goverment has foolishly let billions of muslims into our country and it is slowley but surely ruining our natural England. Where has the traditional christian religon gone? Down the toilet like the rest of Britian. I'm sorry, but our normal ways of going about our normal lives are evermore changing. I Dont even feel safe going anywhere any more. I totally respect the Muslim faith, but what on earth are these women doing wearing head scarves? I have children, and i feel unsafe when i walk past them, because they could be hiding a knife or anything under there. Its just not safe. And the worst part of it is that Muslim's dont even respect our Traditional christian faith. They say 'we do not feel comftorable with you sayin merry christmas around us'. WHAT? They dont even respect OUR religion, yet they DARE come into our country saying that! But what if we said similar things to them? There would be a huge kick-off wouldn't there? personally, i think its absolutley stupid that we allow so many muslim's into our country. I dont dis-like Muslims, i dont have anything against them, but it really comes to something stupid when they out-number us in our own country Dosent it?
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I appreciate the take here, but I must also be concerned as a religious studies guy: is it really fair to lend veracity to a particular religion if it 'works'? It could well be that if there are bad Muslims, that Islam may not be inherently wrong; and in the same way, good Christians may not make Christianity inherently right. The point is that the particular practice of an adherent or community of adherents cannot be indicative of the veracity of respective faith. Anyone can be nice on their own.
I do not doubt the common courtesy and general kindness you experience--why should I?--but there are a good deal of decent, authentic Christians here in America, and yet they still are generally pilloried by various talking heads and contrarians as being bigoted, right-wing nutjobs, etc. I could write about the portrayal of Christians in the media, talk about my positive experiences, and while the point should be the same as yours, I doubt that I would be able to get away with it.
All that said, nothing done in the authority of any religion can replace what it means to treat others the way you want to be treated. Such goodness is super-religious.