How Does The Media Affect Muslim Refugees

Negative portrayals of Muslims in the mainstream media have led to widespread islamophobia in society. The way the media have illustrated Islam and Muslims in the media has influenced citizens to be misinformed about the true nature of both Muslims and Islam. As a result of the negative representations of Muslims in the media, societies views of Muslims have been adversely rendered and caused an unnecessary fear of Muslims in society. Exacerbation of islamophobia in the media has also led to a number of hate crimes towards Muslims (McQueeney, 2014). Instead of focusing on real news, medias often narrate stories

Another way conflict has made the ethnic visibility of muslims portrayed through media is the Jiljab controversy of 2002 (Tarlo 2010). In September of 2002, a 13 year old girl of Bengali origin and her brothers, threatened the head principal of an London high school, for not allowing their sister to wear the hijab, because they said the Shalwar kamiz was not legitimate enough for their sister to express her religious beliefs. This matter was taken to court in 2004 where the brothers and their sister pleaded their case and walked out winners (Tarlo 2010). This controversy attracted major media attention and was featured in newspapers and television documents around the world (Tarlo 2010). This could be seen to exemplify the visibility of muslims in a way that portrays them to be people who ‘actively, publicly and consciously advocate their religious identity’ to the world (Schmidt 2011) showing that due to the conflict that had risen between a girl, her brothers and the school principal the medias effect portrayed this conflict to the whole world, representing muslims in a light that portrayed them as uncompromising and unreasonable, demanding people, which were at odds with ‘western liberal values’ (Tarlo 2010)

The paper notes that in the pre-9/11 America, American Muslims enjoyed the same rights that other Americans did, engaging themselves in such activities as institution-building, public work, and integration. The process of integration, however, was severely disrupted by 9/11 because many Americans unfortunately began to hold all Muslims accountable for the terrorist attack, distrusting them, discriminating against them, and subjecting them to various forms of hatred. The media played a crucial role in this endeavor, as commentators began to draw a link between Islam and extremist political beliefs.

On the covers of newspapers and on the screens of many, the story of the Boston marathon hits the ground. Twenty six thousand eight hundred thirty nine people from all over the world came to run in this awe-inspiring marathon. Until the tragedy strikes right in their faces. The explosions, injuring scores of people, effected the lives of innocent civilians. Cheers were replaced with screams, sirens, and the first responders providing aide to the citizens. This was a brutal event just like the one on September 11, 2001. Instead of using seclusion towards political and economical reasons for events, the mass medias perceptive towards incidents involving the religion Islam has created the stereotypical thought in society in which we live in today.

However, these sentiments are not limited to these countries. As Europe is connected by mostly open borders in the Schengen Area and shared media, “Islamophobia works without Muslims” (Marks et al.; SETA 7). Countries with relatively low Muslim populations still blame increases in crime as well as other negative social development impacts on Muslims (SETA).

In Europe, Islamophobia emerged together with new anti-Semitism, where the targets are the new immigrants, Muslims, as well as Jews. The reason for that is in France and United Kingdom, Muslims and Jews for the past decade inhabit the poorest neighborhoods. Media, on the other hand, portrays this as an incapability of Muslim immigrants to integrate into European society and susceptibility to the imported Islamist ideologies (Silverstein, 367).

The American and European discourse around the Charlie Hebdo shootings is mostly shock, sorrow, and anger, further fueling the Anti-muslim feelings that were sparked by the September 11th terrorist attacks on the world trade center, while the Muslim discourse is also one of shock and sorrow, but they at least understand why the attacks occurred, as almost all americans do not; we should care about this because it is only the most famous example of something that has happened before, and has been threatened many times. An example of this is the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which faced multiple threats of violence after publishing 12 caricatures of Muhammad.

Religion and the Refugee Community The religious beliefs of the participants also had different effects on their interactions with other members of the refugee community with different nationalities. Amin, who has lived in Voenna Rampa, where the majority of inhabitants are from Afghanistan, says he has had problems with them, as they mostly were single men while he was married. He attributes these problems to the fact that the Afghanis are culturally different and not as religious. He seems to have similar attitudes towards the Kurds, which he says get better treatment because they are not very religious.

“If the media were not there to report terrorist acts and to explain their political and social significance...terrorism as such would cease to exist” said John O'Sullivan, an editor of the Times of London.1 This is also the way many other people feel about the recent increase in terrorist activity; they feel that the media is causing it. The media is doing this by fulfilling the terrorists' need for publicity.2 Terrorists need media publicity in order to get their views spread to the public.3 Because of this need for publicity, terrorists are committing their acts of terrorism in areas where a lot of publicity will be gained; the United States and Western Europe are the most recent targets. The bombings of the federal building in

"The US media has been clubbing together terrorism and Islam, influencing the American public to think that all Arab Muslims are "crazy and violent terrorists"… The American media has been a primary agent responsible for creating racist stereotypes, images and

How the has media poisoned peoples’ brains to think like this. Media has created this mental construct, in which all Muslims are the “bad guys”. Media plays a big role in a lot of different situations. Media mostly portrays African American as “thugs, and drug dealers”, media portrays Latinos as all being “illegal”. Media plays an essential role in the development of the young children, who’s brains are still developing. It really affects their world view.

The connection between Islam and terrorism was not intensified until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that pushed the Islamic faith into the national and international spotlight (Smith, 2013). As Smith (2013) articulated, “Many Americans who had never given Islam a second thought before 9/11 now had to figure out how to make sense of these events and relate to the faith tradition that ostensibly inspired them” (p. 1). One way in which people made sense of these events was through the media channels that influenced their overall opinions by shaping a framework of censored ideas (Yusof, Hassan, Hassan & Osman, 2013). In a survey conducted by Pew Forum (2012), 32% of people reported that their opinions of Muslims were greatly influenced by the media’s portrayal of Islam that depicted violent pictorials and fundamentalist Muslims. Such constant negative depiction is likely to lead to the inevitable—prejudice and hate crime. For instance, in 2002 alone there were approximately 481 hate crimes that were carried out against Muslims (Smith, 2013). Ever since the 9/11 attacks Muslim people have been the target of “suspicion, harassment and discrimination” (Talal, n.d., p. 9).

The Syrian refugee crisis has received massive media coverage. People around the world are trying to comprehend the desperate, complicated situation surrounding Syria. The civil war in Syria is the worst crisis in our time. Syrians upset at the fact that long promised reforms have not been enacted, began anti-government demonstrations which started the civil war in 2011. The peaceful protests turned ugly, with the government violently putting an end to those protests. Afterward, ordinary citizens took arms, causing the situation to escalate. Syrians are fleeing their homes because of the great violence, which have left thousands dead and millions wounded, a collapsed infrastructure, resulting in a shattered economy, and for the safety of the children. Syrians are either streaming to surrounding countries or risking their lives to travel to Europe.

This survey reveals that the problem with the Islam faith is not racial: The Muslim people are welcomed, the Islam faith is not. The violence that has been perpetrated against America, whether executed or planned, has brought to fruition religious persecution not seen since the persecution of the Jews in W.W.II. This “trust no Arab” attitude has brought shame to the Constitutional intentions of freedom of religion intended by our forefathers, and has set religious tolerance back 200 years. Looking at media representation of Muslim Americans prior to 9-11, it shows religious diversity in America, depicting Muslim America as just another religious community seeking to advance and protect their interests, not unlike other Americans. After 9-11 the media portrayed representations of threat and fear, creating boundaries between Muslims and other Americans. Such depiction transforms the identity of Muslims and American religious pluralism (Byng, M. pg. 3).

“When I think Islam, I think belly dancers, bombs, and billionaires” This is something I have heard from many people’s mouths. When people think of the word Islam, or Muslim, a certain generalized picture comes to mind. I am sure this picture involves such things as sand, camels, oil, covered women, hookah, amongst other things. Though this is what the Western media generalizes Islam as, there is much more to Islam than the three B’s and these pictures that come to mind. Islam is not only a religion but is also a way of life. Like many things, Islam is stereotyped, generalized, and misunderstood. When most of us think of Islam we think of the “oppressed” women and “messed up” laws and we fail to see the truths of Islam and what it really stands for.