Alwaght- In the wake of the Paris attacks and the San Bernardino shooting, Muslims around the world have been subjected to hate crimes as they are being blamed for atrocities they have not committed. Although such attacks cannot be justified, they can be attributed to a particular phenomenon that has been recently addressed as Islamophobia, which is the fear or prejudice of Islam or Muslims.
While
some contend that the actions of extremist groups such as ISIS are the main
reason Islamophobia exists, there is a general agreement that the media takes
the greater share of responsibility.
In
the US alone, attacks, acts of vandalism and racially-charged threats have
increased in recent weeks. From hateful messages to physical assaults and
shootings, US states have been witnessing hiked anti-Muslim offences.
In
Britain the case is quite similar, Muslims are becoming the victims of abuse,
both physically and verbally. Recent reports and stories have shown that
British Muslims blame the media for what they are going through.
Exaggeration,
misrepresentations, accusations and most notably branding terrorists as Muslims
are only a few things the media are capable of doing and which have a major
role in fuelling Islamophobia.
The
focus on the name of ISIS, for example, as opposed to its actions when
categorizing it as a Muslim group is one example. While the so-called Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claims to be Muslim, its actions speak
otherwise. Killing, raping, torturing, and stealing are clearly not Islamic
values. Instead of telling their audience otherwise, some western media outlets
are falsely attributing these values to Islam.
At
the same time, generalization is another way. Inducing viewers, listeners, or
readers into believing that since ISIS is ‘Muslim’, then all Muslims must be
terrorists too, can be compared to accusing all Christians of being terrorists
because politicians like George Bush and Tony Blair, who are Christians, have
caused the deaths of up to a million Iraqi, or to saying that all Jews are
occupiers because the Israeli regime has occupied Palestine. Not only would
this be unfair, but it would also be nonsensical and baseless.
Most
often than not, the media create their reports based on speculations which are
usually politically-motivated, instead of facts and that helps stoke fear and
presumptions.
The
Sun’s yellow journalism is an example. Recently, the publication’s front page
claimed that 1 in 5 British Muslims sympathize with so-called “jihadis” triggering
anti-Muslim sentiments across the UK. Rupert Murdoch’s fabrication, many believe, was part of an intentional
distortion of a survey in a bid to make the Muslims villain and to hold them
responsible for terrorism.
Yet it is not only how related news is being
covered. The amount and length of news is also crucial to shaping public
opinion. Repeating the same news over and over again without necessarily having
updates, and allotting more time to terrorism news can be seen as an attempt to
shift the world’s focus from all sorts of problems to this particular issue
especially when shedding light on the Muslim community as a culprit. While any
other shooting would have been treated with less attention, the San Bernardino,
California, shooting has relatively taken up more time in US media.
A
phobia is an irrational kind of fear. Likewise, Islamophobia has no realistic
basis as Muslim communities in general do not represent the danger posed by
some terrorist groups who claim to be Islamic. However, this fear has spread as
a result of a media attempt to demonize Muslims for whatever reason they may
have. Now what remains to be seen is how long it will take people to realize
that they are being fed untruthful propaganda about Muslims, or whether they
will at all.
