Portfolio of work Islam Today

Question: Prepare a portfolio of work, covering 1 significant issues associated with Islam Today. Answer: Introduction Since the beginning of the millennium in the year 2000, the manner in which the media represent the Muslims has changed a great deal. This is because of the terrorist attacks in America in the year 2011 where two planes crashed into the twin towers in New York and the bombing in London, which led to the American war on terrorism. Afterward the American war on terrorism, the Americans and the entire world population developed a fear and hatred of Islam (Manning 2006). The western community has a distorted image concerning the Muslims. As a consequence, the media adopted stereotypes which they used to present the Muslims. As much as some media houses were trying to paint the Muslims positively, the stereotypical thoughts overrode the positive presentations (Zemni 2002). Media image concerning the Muslims is a threatening one, and therefore, Islam as a religion is viewed as a threat to peoples well-being. The modern negative media depiction of Muslims are discussed below. How Contemporary Media Displays Muslims First, the media presents Muslims as people who strongly believe in jihad or holy war. As per Muslims, a jihad remains a religious responsibility of the Muslims to uphold their beliefs and practices. Muslims and non-Muslims refer to a jihad as both spiritual and physical struggles. The spiritual fight is where the Muslims strive to preserve their religion whereas a physical contest is where the Muslims fight the opponents of Islam. This physical effort can take a violent or non-violent form (Sheridan 2006). The media distorts the true definition of a jihad, making people believe that terrorism and inhuman acts are part and parcel of Muslim culture, and that the Quran encourages the Muslims to kill people. In the western perspective, the phrase jihad is essential in the justification of violence exhibited by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. The al Qaeda pose themselves as defenders of the Islam religion and, therefore, feel justified to attack western countries (Poynting and Noble 2 003). The media representation of Muslim terrorist groups depends on the argument that the Quran supports their violent activities thereby giving Islam a negative image. The modern-day media emphasizes a lot on the physical tussle rather than the spiritual fight of Muslims (Gottschalk and Greenberg 2008). Secondly, the media presents Muslim men as male chauvinists. The media has portrayed Muslim women as people who are submissive to the oppressive rules created by their men. Some feminists try opposing this power, but from a weak position, hence making them unsuccessful in their fight for their rights (Manning 2004). The women are presented as property belonging to the men and can easily be manipulated by their owners (Jackson 2010). Women are also limited to their reproductive and sexual roles as portrayed by the western media. The women are considered dangerous in all aspects of life and should, therefore, not be accorded leadership positions, lest the whole community loses direction (Ameli and Merali 2004). In fact, all Muslim women shown in western televisions wear hijabs (veils), and they put on long black robes that cover their whole bodies. This is a justification that Muslim women are oppressed by their men and that their roles in the society have been significantly limited (Bullock 2000). The hijab or veil restricts the females from destroying the men in aspects of life such as sexually, morally, and socially (Shadid and van Koningsveld 2002). The media presents the Sharia law as one that inspires domestic violence. For instance, when a husband suspects that his wife could be disobedient, he has a right to hit her physically as a corrective measure. This male chauvinism is considered backward by Western people because women empowerment is at the forefront of most countries (Said 2008). Third media presentation of Islam in the West is that Islamic countries are prone to violence and old ideas. Medieval ideas depicted by the media in Islam comprise numerous aspects. For example, males enjoy a right to polygamy, and they are permissible to marry at most four wives. They also enjoy an unrestricted right anchored in the penal code to divorce their wives (Aly 2007). Males are also the decision makers regarding the employment of their wives. Female counterparts even lack guardianship of their children (d'Haenens and Bink 2007). In modern countries, these medieval ideas have been scrapped off, and they condemn practices like polygamy. In these modern states, each party has a right to custody of their children, except when one exhibits negative behavior, women can work where they want to, and they can travel to whatever destination they want (Rane, Ewart and Abdalla 2010). Besides, almost all the terrorist groups are shown by contemporary media to be Muslims some of which i nclude al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Sunni (Bunzl 2007). In the case of documentaries that show how atomic bombs are created and detonated, the masterminds behind their making are usually Muslims (Saeed 2007). The media also shows pictures of Muslim countries in situations where there is no peace, and the Muslims are on the run from attacks. Most of the medias refugees representations are Muslim families pictures. This portrayal shows how much the media exposes Islamic countries to be prone to violence (Allen 2010). Conclusion Islam media contemporary presentation in the western setting seems to be unfair to the Muslims. Several individual perceive Muslims as terrorists and the supreme dangerous collection of persons globally. It is similarly apparent that extremist assemblies take advantage of the term holy war to attack in the pretext of fighting for Muslims (Jahedi, Abdullah and Mukundan 2014). The primary teaching of Prophet Muhammad was that the Muslims should pursue their faith in a peaceful manner. As much as the Muslim practices seem to be oppressive to women, Allah ordered the man to take care of their wives, and ensure that they lack nothing (Manning 2003). The practices that are considered medieval exist to ensure that women receive satisfactory care. For instance, the man should authorize the traveling or employ of their wives to make sure that they are in safe environments. The people who make these practices seem oppressive are those who take advantage of specific methods to be dominating (Ak barzadeh and Smith 2005). The US have an obligation of thwarting the terrorist groups instead of linking them to the Muslims. Some of the Muslims live exemplary lives, and it would be unfair tagging them as threats. References Akbarzadeh, S. and Smith, B., 2005. The representation of Islam and Muslims in the media. Monash University. Accessed December, 22, p.2014. Allen, C., 2010. Islamophobia. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Aly, A., 2007. Australian Muslim responses to the discourse on terrorism in the Australian popular media. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 42(1), p.27. Ameli, S.R. and Merali, A., 2004. British Muslims' Expectations of Government (Vol. 2). London: Islamic Human Rights Commission. Bullock, K., 2000. Challenging media representations of the veil: contemporary Muslim womens reveiling movement. American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. Bunzl, M., 2007. Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Hatreds old and new in Europe (Vol. 28). Prickly Paradigm. d'Haenens, L. and Bink, S., 2007. Islam in the Dutch press: with special attention to the Algemeen Dagblad. Media, Culture Society, 29(1), pp.135-149. Gottschalk, P. and Greenberg, G., 2008. Islamophobia: Making Muslims the enemy. Rowman Littlefield. Jackson, L., 2010. Images of Islam in US media and their educational implications. Jahedi, M., Abdullah, F.S. and Mukundan, J., 2014. Review of Studies on Media Portrayal of Islam, Muslims and Iran. Manning, P., 2003. Arabic and Muslim people in Sydney's daily newspapers, before and after September 11. Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, 109(1), pp.50-70. Manning, P.C., 2004. Dog whistle politics and journalism: reporting Arabic and Muslim people in Sydney newspapers. Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, UTS. Manning, P.C., 2006. Australians imagining Islam. Muslims and the news media. Poynting, S. and Noble, G., 2003. Dog-whistlejournalism and Muslim Australians since 2001. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, 109(1), pp.41-49. Rane, H., Ewart, J. and Abdalla, M. eds., 2010. Islam and the Australian news media (Vol. 4). Academic Monographs. Saeed, A., 2007. Media, Racism and Islamophobia: The representation of Islam and Muslims in the media. Sociology Compass. Said, E. W., 2008. Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts determine how we see the rest of the world (Fully Revised edition). Random House. Shadid, W. and van Koningsveld, P.S., 2002. The Negative image of Islam and Muslims in the West: Causes and solutions. Religious freedom and the neutrality of the state: the position of Islam in the European Union. Leuven: Peeters, pp.174-196. Sheridan, L. P., 2006. Islamophobia pre- and post-September 11th, 2001. Journal of Interpersonal violence. Zemni, S., 2002. Islam, European identity and the limits of multiculturalism. Religious freedom and the neutrality of the state: The position of Islam in the European Union, pp.158-173.