Media vs. Islam

Media vs. Islam
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Media vs. Islam
Maybe we ought to take some little time from the facts on the ground and imagine a world with no media. For me it just does not add up. This is because I lack the words that I can use to describe the picture that comes to my mind upon imagination. That shows how important the media is in our understanding of different cultures. Islam is a way of life that sections of people believe in. For as long as I can remember, different forms of the media have not been doing justice to Islam both as a culture and as a religion (Media, Identity and Culture).
The print media is one of the most trusted forms of the media worldwide. I say so because each day we wake up to a completely new set of news be it from the New York Times, the Washington Times, and the USA today, the Huffington post among others (Chopra, 2011). Because of our desire to know whatever goes on around all the continents we normally buy such newspapers. More often than not when reports emerge of terrorism, then we are likely to see some relationship to Islam. This trend has been going on for the past thirty years and was heightened by the 9/11 attack (Varisco, 2012). In addition, the print media always relate Islam to suicidal bombers, to jihad, to extremists, to armed and dangerous militias. In like manner, the print media has often linked Islam to serious terrorists like former Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and most recently the White Widow who features on the list of Interpol as being one of the most wanted female terrorists.
Another form of media that has in the past been biased towards Islam is the listened to and the watched. In this category, we find the televisions, the radios and the cinema. I presume true the fact that those of us who have television sets always watch different channels like CNN frequently, if not on a day-to-day basis (Chopra, 2011). In the event that there is some act of terror then Islam must always be included. In the event that there is, some form of infringement of human rights such as was witnessed in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power or in Libya when Muammar Gaddafi was in power then Islam is always brought in to portray all the Muslims as people who do not respect life (Varisco, 2012). The same situations are occasionally experienced with radios where the stations we listen to on our way to and from school or work, relay the same message. The situation gets more complicated even when it comes to the cinemas where people catch various movies and documentaries. Though the movies do not portray Islam as bad, the fact that most if not all the characters are always non-Muslims, shows that even the movie writers and directors do not want to hold Islam with the same dignity as other cultures (Chopra, 2011). The documentaries also contribute towards this negative view of Islam in that, most of the documentaries that are run about Islam show Muslims holding people hostages so as to instill some amount of fear. Most of the sites and blogs cannot mention terrorism without the mention of Islam (Chopra, 2011).
The fact demonstrated above was supported by the recently released research carried out by NewsXchange organization. The research which was ca...