To this day we may find numerous web-pages in some way connected to Islam. Furthermore, we can observe that there is great number of people who are concerned about portrayal of Islam by western media and its effect on our society. It is clear that media are in general full of miscomprehensions. We should almost never take literally what we read or see in media. These days it is important to form your own opinion.
Earlier I wrote about an article by Bashy Quraishy and I mentioned his web-page – www.bashy.dk. I would definitely recommend his site not only as interesting work of someone clearly thinking, but also as a source of information for someone who does not know much about Islam. In “Short Introduction to Islam” we are informed in “non-fanatic” and brief way about Islam. Quraishy’s web-page is also a good source for reflection about a recent trend in Islam – growing fundamentalism. This extremely sensitive topic is discussed in three interesting articles (“Cultural Pluralism-a Lesson from History”, “Fundamentalism and Secularism” and “Their Mosques are Full but their Hearts are Empty”). Although Quraishy does not discuss only the mis-portrayal of Islam by Western media, it is clear that the mentioned “Informational Revolution” is one of the aspects important to consider. Quraishy makes an important point, which seems to in some way be part of all his work, and that is: “words have to be used with utmost care” (Bashy).
It may be hard to follow every media to find a reference of Islam. Nevertheless, it may be enormously useful to follow different media so we can make our own opinion about the portrayal of Islam by media. For this we may use web-page which links us directly to each media mentioning Islam. Firstly, it is interesting to visit blog – www.mediaanddislam.com, which is apparently a web-page of “Muslim Activists” (“About”). Here we can find several entries each informing us about what was written or said about Islam in media. I found extremely interesting their link to a video on “youtube” presenting Jeff Cohen and his “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Cooperate Media”. You can also watch this video on my blog. Another web-page linking us further to different media is http://mediamatters.org. This page provides us with often alarming media comments. Numerous of them are about Islam. You can just search words such as Islam or Muslim and you will get a great amount of examples of Western media mis-portrayal of Islam.
While “getting deeper” we may visit some web-pages written by Muslims and see about their views of different events. For this, I would recommend quite moderate Illume magazine, which has also an electronic format. In the latest issue we may read about the “American Muslim paradox” (Kira). It is a trend already mentioned by Quraishi — some people seem to confuse Islam with nationality. This trend may be blamed for the non-hostility of West towards Islam partly caused by media.
Lastly, I would like to draw your attention to blog of Nasir Khan – http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com/. He writes: “I oppose war and I am a firm believer in peaceful co-existence of all nations and people” and he continues: “in my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power-politics, misleading propaganda and violation of basic human rights”(Khan). I believe that he offers very insightful analysis of world events without usual media anti-Islam bias.
The Internet is a source of lots of information and also mis-information. It is good to go and look for different sources to get our own opinion. In the case of Islam and its mis-portrayal by Western media the internet may be a useful tool. We may find pages criticising the approach of western media, events seen through the eyes of Muslims and we may get good information about all aspects of Muslim life. We have to always stay selective and critical.
Works citied
“About.” Media and Islam. 2 Jan 2008. <http://www.mediaandislam.com/?page_id=2>.
Kira, Hazem. “Un wholly American.” Illumedia. 5 Dec 2008.<http://www.illumemedia.org/artman/publish/article_648.php>.
Khan, Nasir. Nasir Khan Blog. 2 Jan 2008. <http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com>.
Quraishi, Bashy. “Their Mosques are Full, but their Hearts are Hearts are Empty.”Human Rights. 3 Jan 2008. <http://www.bashy.dk/uk/islam/mosques.htm>.
