Islamophobia in American Media, Cause or Result?

Introduction:

There is no universal agreement about Islamophobia definition, some scholars define it as anti-muslimism, while others defined as rejection and discrimination against Muslims and Islam, and some define it as a religious and cultural racism. (Bravo López, 2011) At the end of the twentieth century the term of islamophobia was improved by dome political and international organizations to get the world’s attention to how western communities do against islam and Muslims. (citation.wht is islamophobia)

The importance of studying the Islamophobia phenomenon comes from its wide effect on muslim communities in western countries and muslims in general. Among these effects are the difficulties that Muslims in western countries face due to Islamophobia, and because it balks their integration in these communities. However, there are other social, economic, and political consequences to the phenomenon.

Many scholars noticed a strong core relation between media coverage of the middle east and Muslim countries in general. Others assumed that islamophobia is media is one of the reasons of islamophobia while few consider the postulate that media coverage is a result for islamophobia that inherently exists in the western societies.

Therefore, islamophobia is an attractive subject in the contemporary studies. It is an interdisciplinary topic that combines several fields in one research, such as, social sciences and mass communication. This research will suggest the team to answer the research question which is Islamophobia in American media, cause or result?

Throughout the research at the university of Bridgeport I found out that studying the subject of Islamophobia needs a corporation with some scholars from the College of Public and International Affairs.

Islamophobia and history

The history of anti-Muslims is as old as the history of the United States. From the beginning of establishing the country. Then, Islam has been identified by part of the American society that is the religion of “tyranny, intolerance, misogyny, violence, sexual promiscuity, and heathenism”.(GhaneaBassiri, 2013) Islam then after 9/11

Indeed, The best candidate for this research is Robert J. Riggs, Assistant Professor in the M.A. program in Global Development and Peace, is one of the team that might be interested in this field of research because he teaches courses on Islamic History and Introduction to Islam. Therefore, he has a wide background about the issues of Islam.

Islamophobia and religion

Religion plays a big role in shaping the public opinion specially in western countries like the united states. Religion has a huge effect on people’s attitude toward the forieng policy, for example, The American foreign policy toward the Middle East issues. Specifically, between Palestine and Israel. Thus, Israel is supported by Jewish American. Another Example, when the united states invaded Iraq back in 2003 to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein who was viewd as a violent person according to his religion. (Smidt, 2005)

The candicate for this subject is Dr. Richard L. Rubenstein is President Emeritus of the University of Bridgeport. A Distinguished Professor of Religion at the University and a Life Member of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Rubenstein also serves as Director of the University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

An internationally recognized historian of religion whose writings lie at the root of Holocaust writings, his works have been the subject of more than a dozen doctoral dissertations.

Islamophobia and media coverage

Another team member is Mohammad Alazdee As a communication scholar, Dr. Al-Azdee’s research focus is the intersection amongst media, politics, and religion.

Islamophobia and media coverage:

An analyzing study found that media is playing a big role related to the western communities attitude toward Islam and muslims.(Ogan et al., 2014) another important topic Muslim women in US media, US news coverage of women is biasd, whereby journalists are more likely to report on women living in Muslim and Middle Eastern countries if their rights are violated, but will report on women in other societies when their rights are respected. Second, stories about Muslim women emphasize the theme of women’s rights violations and gender inequality, even for countries with relatively good records of women’s rights. Stories about non-Muslim women, on the other hand, emphasize other topics. (Terman, 2017) Linda Hasunuma is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science in the College of Public and International Affairs and she is interested in the area of gender and politics.

For actors like these, the term not only identifies antiIslamic and anti-Muslim sentiments, it also provides a language for denouncing them.

Islamophobia religion

Similar to media coverage of over policing in the United States, many Muslims, including Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Los Angeles East Chapter President Ahsan Mahmood Khan, say news of Islamic extremists in the Middle East and around the world does not reflect who they are.

the type of language these newspapers employ to describe Muslims and Islam; whether or not this language changes in response to major events; the frequency of coverage in relation to major events; if journalists explore the diversity of Islam and Muslim cultures by highlighting nationality, ethnicity, cultural practice, and theological differences; and the typology used to categorise certain groups, practices or modes of Islam. The aim is to gain an understanding of the ways in which the media plays a role in shaping perceptions on Muslims and Islam in the broader community and how they do so in response to particular events either at home or abroad. The following questions have provided the framework for this report: • What images of Muslims and Islam are most frequently propagated in the media? • Are certain misrepresentations recurrent? • Is the press media in Victoria Islamophobia

cartoons do not just illustrate the news. They are graphic editorials, and like all editorials they analyze and interpret a situation, they pass judgment. They tell readers what to think and how to feel about.

In fact, no one knows whether, or how much media, cartoons affect popular opinion. There is a vast and largely inconclusive literature on the general relation between media, public opinion and policy formation. It is still hard to gauge to influence of the political cartoons.

(Michelmore, 2000)

Our study examines the factors that lead to the holding of Islamophobic attitudes in several European countries (France, Germany, Spain, and Great Britain) with large Muslim populations and the United States. As Muslim communities continue to grow in non-Muslim majority countries, and issues of identity and belonging only become more salient, it is imperative to understand more fully the intersection of demographics, media, and attitudes toward Muslims and Islam. Since media coverage of Muslims and Islam is likely to shape the opinions of those who have limited or no contact with this religion and its people, it is important to analyze the potential associations these media portrayals might have with people’s attitudes toward Islam in general and Muslims in particular.

Another goal of this study is to determine whether the underlying predictors of Islamophobia are the same in Europe and the United States. Anti-Islamic attitudes and behaviors have eroded the tenets of democracy on both sides of the Atlantic, and it is important to check whether these trends have been fueled by the same basic factors such as political ideology or lack of education.(Ogan, Willnat, Pennington, & Bashir, 2014)

What is Islamophobia?

(Bravo López, 2011)No agreement exists on the meaning of Islamophobia among scholars and policymakers.

In short, the debate as to how Islamophobia should be understood and its relationship with religious intolerance and racism or cultural racism is an ongoing one, and the question ‘what is Islamophobia?’ remains unanswered. It is for this reason that this paper attempts to tackle the subject from an entirely different perspective, namely by going back and examining some of the initial approaches to Islamophobia between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century (Bravo López, 2011)

A recurring problem in agenda setting studies is that they tend to rely on Gallup poll data to reflect the ‘effects’ of newspaper stories. Indeed, the approach used in this study is a rather broad-brush attempt to link message analysis with survey material without taking overall media exposure into account. Future studies should therefore attempt to more specifically establish the connection between Gallup poll results and media content analyzed. Also, Coleman and Wu (2010) noted that the effects of agenda setting are greater on emotions than they are on cognitive assessments, yet most agenda setting studies measure the latter. Regardless, public perceptions, as with news media coverage, were mostly negative. Future research should continue to examine the link between media coverage and perceptions of Islam and other religions. Longitudinal studies that take into consideration prior held beliefs would be a good next step. (Bowe, Fahmy, & Wanta, 2013)

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