Representation of Islam in newspapers...

[CalumAH]

Hi guys, this is part of an essay. The majority of you undoubtedly read newspapers or watch a news programme on television: do you think Islam (and the Middle-East) is portrayed in a fair and accurate way? Can you explain the Palestinian / Israel conflict? Did you understand the context behind the Jyllands-Posten controversy earlier this year?

Which newspapers to you portray these situations most fairly? What are your beliefs of Islam? Are they the same as your opinion of Christianity?

[geo0939]

If I answer all these questions will you send a degree by post?

[CalumAH]

Actually only an A-Level... And I've written the rest of the essay, just keen to get some wider context from public opinion really.

[noxlumos]

Hi, In my humble opinion islam is not portratyed fairly. We have lots of very nice muslim friends who'd no more dream of eligious zealotry than fly through the air ( I am Catholic, my wife is Jewish) yet all you hear of in the papers are Islamic fundamentalists who are a pain in the a**e.

[noxlumos]

sorry about that, computer ghosts posted it before I was ready:)

You never hear of all the very positive things that muslims in this country do for their neighbours ( of all religious and racial persuasions and their communities) because it's not sensational news.

I think the Arab/Israeli conflict is portrayed, interestingly enough here, as being quite pro palestinian in contrast, although my wife may have brainwashed me to that effect because she has friends and family in Israel and we hear anecdotal information which then colours my perspective of news reports.

The Jyllands-posten incidents were fabulously orchestrated by right wingers/extremists to stir up as much racial hatred as possible and people in both communities fell for it like a ton of bricks. The original cartoons were last September and practically no-one noticed or were very bothered at the time.

I hate the Daily Mail, right wing sh**e rag that it is,we read the Guardian, Times and Independant in our house, to get a varied style of reporting, and I'd say the Independant is most neutral.

I think Islam and Christianity are as reprehensible and as worthy as one another. I have no objections to either as long as it's not forced, fundamental nonesense that affects people's common freedoms.

So there! :)

[jake-the-peg]

You can't "portray" anything as subtle and wideranging as a major religion in the sort of bites that the media use these days.

Imagine Christianity in the same context - the Pope, The Quakers, Burning witches, the Crusades, the ArchBishop of Canterbury, sectarian violence in Northern Ireland - It's hardly possible to make sense of it in the sort of time slots that the media work in.

I think the Palestinian conflict is not hard to understand - Jewish state imposed on indiginious population in 1945 by marginal vote in UN - never going to be a recipe for harmony is it?

I think some of the outrage at the cartoons was a touch disingenuous. We were treated to explanations of how Islam bans the portayal of people yet early Islamic art feature images of people and these are not ripped from museums by angry mobs. So I think that this is a spurious argument and that the real one was it was seen as making fun of a character who is seen with extreme reverence. (compare and contrast with the Blasphemy trial of Gay news after their publication of a sexually explicit poem depicting Jesus as Gay)

I don't think any religion deserves specific legal protection however printing imflamatory material which you know is likely to cause a breach of the peace without a public interest defense should be prosecuted.

[youngmafbog]

The two aer not really joined. Islam is a religion all over the world the majority of beleivers being good decent people.

The Middle east is a place where people live, often with different religions.

And bad mouslims come from England too, as we found out to our cost.

[Drusilla1S]

This weeks New Statesman has a number of issues about religion that may prove helpful to you. The attached is just one of these articles.

http://www.newstatesman.com/200604100018

As for my own opinion, I believe Islam is portrayed in a very unfair manner in the press. Extremism in any religion can be unhealthy, but the western press would have us believe all Moslems are extremists and this is just not the case. My parents have Shia neighbours and mine are Sunnis from Egypt. They are lovely people, doing their best for their children, like all decent parents.

I get annoyed when any support for the Palestinian cause is denounced as anti-semitic. The people who argue this conveniently ignore the fact that both the Jewish people and the Palestinians are semitic people and have more in common culturally and ethnically than extremists on both sides would have us believe.

The images of the prophet Mohammed highlighted hypocrisy on both sides. They were unfair and uncalled for and cynically used to foster unrest. However, Moslems who complain about images of the prophet, Mohammed, conveniently ignore some beautiful Islamic works of art in Turkey, which clearly show images of the prophet are not forbidden in all branches of Islam.

Hope the attached article helps.

[Drusilla1S]

Sadly, the New Statesman only allows an article to be read once before editing it. You will need to access the site yourself to read the articles about religion. Sorry.

[jno]

it's not the job of news reporting - in papers or on TV - to portray anything fairly; it's to report news. This very often means bad news, as it's only things outside the normal run of things that make news ('Dog bites man' isn't news, 'Man bites dog' is.). Better media will do their best to explain the background as broadly and intelligibly as possible, but this seldom comes in the context of news - so it'll be in special reports on TV or on the features pages of newspapers.

This means you have to put a bit of extra effort into understanding wider situations - just watching or reading news isn't enough. Likewise you're never going to find the full story in the Sun or the Mail but you will have a better chance with the former 'broadsheet' newspapers like the Telegraph or Guardian, and there will be more on BBC1 than ITV2.

For what it's worth, I think the broader picture of Palestinian-Israeli conflict is reasonably well reported, but the very much broader picture of Islam isn't; it's just too big a topic.

[brionon]

Youngmaf knows what the majority of Muslims world-wide are like.I wish I knew what the people in the next town are like but,alas, I don't have his omniscience.

[Paul22118]

Calum. in brief I think:-

I do not think Islam is portrayed in a fair way and that is because no journalist has yet illustrated accurately to us what being a Muslim is like. We have not grasped that to devout Muslims it is not the peding holiday/new car purchase/good school results or whatever that matter. It is Islam that matters and matters so far above and beyond anything else we - non Muslims cannot even begin to comprehend.

I spoke to an Israeli recently who simply said in answer to my question of him 'Why are you skirmishing with Palestine all the time?' To which he replied 'All we ask of the whole world, Palestinians, Arabs - everyone. Just leave us alone.' Maybe too simplistic but that was how he felt. You throw a stone at me and we will retaliate. You throw scud missiles from Iraq and we will retaliate. And then he said 'My Country will never experience the holocaust again. If we all die in a pool of blodd on Israeli soil having fought to keep our land and family. So be it.'

As for the cartoons I just don't get it. However, I refer the answer to my first comments here. I think we simply underestimate the passion or maybe blinkered and uninformed view - but we don't see it.

You need The Times for a balanced view. Avoid the rags.

I cannot relate to Islam other than their ability to follow a faith. But they do so in too much a strict manner for me. My own views are too far from Islam to be any where near similar.

Good luck.

[CalumAH]

That''s ideal guys, thank you very much! The consensus (as I imagined) is that Islam does seem to be represented in an negative manner (on average), and this probably has some explanation with regards to the so-called 'CNN Effect' whereby 24 hour 'rolling' news leaves little time for deeper investigation.

Thanks for the help guys, feel free to add anything else, proving very useful

[jump79]

Since 9/11, Islam bashing has become prevalent but the increase in terrorism since then doesn't help much either. The media is largely responsible for this, as I have seen and read many times about the "Islamist " terrorists which then subconsciously affiliates one term with the other. Why not just call these people terrorists full stop? That might curb the growing tension between the West and Islam.

I don't know enough about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to comment.
About the Danish cartoon controversy, the reaction was a bit extreme to begin with (riots), but as someone pointed out, the religious extremists hyped the people up to take advantage of a sensitive religious issue. The cartoons had already been printed in some countries some months before but surprisingly, there had not been much of a reaction then. Which says a lot about the propaganda and brainwashing that must have gone on between then.
It should be remembered though, that many muslims (not all) are devoutly religious and cartoons like that were meant to provoke and get a reaction.
Free speech is a great thing about our society, but it should not be abused or taken too far or we may soon lose that right, with the govt's becoming increasingly interfering and censurious.