Bad news indeed sells. Islam over the years have been portrayed as a religion of violence in the world. In the case of violence or riot in a Muslim community, the media reports it as Muslims doing this and that, i dont know whether the media men forget that it inst only Muslims that live in our Zongo communities. I have been to places like Nima, Fadama, and the rest, and i have seen or realizes that those communities are not inhabited by muslims only, we have muslims, christians and traditionalist there. some non muslims even speak the hausa language, so if one is not careful, you would consider one as a muslim, at times, even the dressing of the non muslims tends to resemble ours, because some adopt our beautiful way of dressing. The damage caused by the Crusades was the poisoning of the Western mind against the Muslim world through a deliberate misrepresentation of the teachings and ideals of Islam. Mohammed Asad, The Road to Mecca. Given the relatively low frequency of reporting on Muslims and Islam in general in the media, it is not surprising that the Western media displays a distorted image of Islam and Muslims. Television programs and the print mainstream media have perpetuated the stereotypes of Islam and Muslims for years. Media images of Islam are omnipresent and are part of Western culture of racism and imperial design. Islam has always been seen in the West as violent, barbaric, anti-democratic, anti-human, anti-rational, etc. The aim is to turn Muslims into an enemy people, to be regarded collectively with contempt and scorn. Since the attacks on America (9/11), media speculation has pointed the finger at Muslims. A Muslim is portrayed as terrorist, a refugee or militant, but seldom a real human being. The term Islamist is used as a catchall term and many Muslims have been arbitrarily detained, simply because they are Muslims. It is the Islamist who provided social and health services the government neglected to provide. It is they who wanted democratic elections and honest government. Similarly, many of Islams concepts have gone through process of reduction. For example, the concept of Jihad, the spiritual, intellectual and social components have been stripped away, and have been reduced to war by any means including terrorism. Other connotations of Jihad, including personal struggle, intellectual endeavour and social construction have evaporated. For Muslims, nothing could be further from the truth, Islam is peaceful religion, and peace is an essential precondition for submission to the will of God. Muslims like any other people, they believe in freedom, justice humanity and democratic principles. They really want to control their own affairs. They dont want to be pushed around, ordered, oppressed, etc. A critique of Islam, like a critique of any religion or ideology that has doctrines preventing people from exercising their moral sense, solidarity, and reason, is welcome. After 9/11, racism against Muslims and Islam became a form of free speech in the West. Muslims and Islam were subjected to widespread abuse and bashing. Publishing houses competing to make money from this commercialised business of producing books made up of rubbish and fabricated images of Islam and Muslims. Countless obscure university scholars and intellectuals suddenly appeared on TV screens and treated as experts on Islam by the mainstream media. They project the manufactured and distorted images of Islam. This corporate picture of Islam is a depressing and misleading one. In Australia, Muslims have been subjected to unprovoked racist attacks. Muslim women wearing traditional clothes were spat upon, physically assaulted and had their scarves ripped from their heads. Mosques were firebombed and Islamic schools and other community facilities vandalised or deluged with hate mail. Following the Bali bombing, the Liberal government of John Howard saw an opportunity to inflame the situation by targeting innocent Muslims as terrorist suspects. Without any substantiated evidence, homes of Muslim students in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth were raided by Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, seizing properties and interrogating terrified Indonesian families. Muslims are the only people who remain whom one can indulge in bashing with impunity. A study on racist attitudes conducted by the University of New South Wales in 2003 found one in eight Australians interviewed admitted they were prejudiced, particularly towards Muslim Australians. The study, conducted by a team led by geography lecturer Kevin Dunn, also found some Australians were living in denial of such prejudice though 80 per cent of those surveyed recognized racism was a problem.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Apr 2014 17:26:53 +0000
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