There are few things as misunderstood in America as Islam and its followers. The world’s fastest growing religion with more than one billion adherents, increasingly Islam increasingly affects American lives. The oil rich Muslim siatesare tore important than ever in the aftermath of the cold war, and here in America Muslims now outnumber Jews, The Islamic Block is also the widest population of undemocratic countries that can be influenced through friendship and ‘communication rather than paranoia and animosity. Yet Muslim beliefs and culture remain a mystery to most Westerners. In the west today it is fashionable to designate all Muslims as the new Pariahs: terrorists, fundamentalists, fanatics. Muslims lurk under the bed where the other bogeyman the communists “used to hide. Ignorance is breeding fear Westerners find it convenient to lump the Islamic world together and call it Ara, and populate this mythical world ‘with bearded men with a host of veiled wives in tow, a stretch Mercedes and a camel in every garage and a harem in every home, It’s a nonsensical view that comes from the same school of simples that permitted media to define communism for America and the rest of the world.
“While Muslims based in the West work hard to reverse non-Muslim perceptions of Muslims, Islamic militants have begun exploiting their violent radicalism, several years after the last American hostage held by Muslim extremists returned home and American Muslims no longer felt unsafe to openly admit their faith when a single act of terrorism in New York city did an equal amount of damage to Islam’s image.
“The growth of anti-Muslim hysteria in America reminds one of the postwar growth of anticommunism that led 0 McCarthyism. There is a basic human frailty, a weakness that has been exploited for centuries by various power structures, like racism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism anti-Islamic fervor is abstract and theoretical. Very often, the most Anti-Muslim people have not met a Muslim and have not got the foggiest notion about Islamic culture, history or religion, how many Americans have met, Ict alone known well a single Muslim?
Creating the face of the enemy is an old and ugly game. The technique is to dehumanize the enemy until ceases to resemble a human being, once that’s done, it is relatively easy to get people to fear, hate and kill them. It is one of the ie cn diets are preparca for war. Given the fact that fear is a reflex and a way of self-preservation, it is also something that can be exploited or manipulated as it has been. whole phenomena of anti-Islamism is quite amazing, as is the
insecurity of those who breed the negative Islamic stereotype. They are afraid that by seeing Muslims as normal Giteatar eee A le kee authentic. honest people, Americans will begin to question both the stereotype and the policies that flow Trom massive military spending, Now it is up to us to break this stereotype. The international media has played a crucial role in coloring people’s perceptions by the way it has reported the four decade long ArabIsrael conflict. The selective and prejudicial terminology used by both the electronic and print media has created various negative stereotypes and reinforced existing ones of the Arabs in general. Western media consistently identifies different organizations, not only by their names, but also by their religious denominations and affiliations. This bulk of media coverage for instance, persistently applies the term Shiite to the different militia groups in Lebanon. their fascination for the arm borders on no obsession with what they cannot understand and label accordingly. The Americans have not yet recovered from their experiences in post revolution Tran, They never understood Shiism and this ignorance stems not only fear of the ‘unknown but also a keen attraction to the unknown of course, Shiism is also equated with fundamentalism in Western eyes.
Subtle discrimination is also but disposed of when it comes to covering the Palestine issue, The most clear cut example of double standards is in the application of the term’ “terrorism.” When the Palestinians are involved in acts: of violence, they are promptly labeled terrorists, But when Israel commits acts of violence and violates the sovereignty of other nations it is acting in the interests of national security.
“There is no doubt that any act that involves the use of random violence to achieve a goal is terrorist. As such the Palestinians have been guilty of terrorist acts. But when Israel has been and still is conducting state sanctioned terrorism under the guise of national security it is not reported in the same way a great deal of racial discrimination has been engendered in the West against Arabs due to the methods of press reporting, General mythical stereotypes abound such as, “Arabs are violent by nature” or “all Palestinians are terrorists”, Needless to say such stereotypes are not only offensive but also dangerous.
“There has been a recent shift in the reporting of events in the Muslim world, The long conflict in Bosnia and occupied territories in the Middle East have forced the media to examine their own biases. As was the case in Beirut, Bosnia has become the battleground. The victims are not politically motivated ideologues but the civilians of Bosnia. When the firing subsides few remember the how’s and whys of the conflict; grief is the overriding emotion.
“The electronic media has proved to be the most powerful communication of the’ human misery and suffering in Bosnia. Whatever negative views that may have been held about the Muslim stand in Bosnia have been submerged by the image small child standing alone among, the rubble of his home. Television footage of the violence in Bosnia has brought human rights activists’ to the fore. Perhaps the electronic media will be the harbinger of fairness and start a tend in the entire system By: Seema Ahmed PL/9/8/95.
Note: Although this article is regarding Muslims, many of the points hold true for Sikhs and others in this country because of color, language or clothing are regarded suspiciously.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 29, 1995
