I've finished writing my oral and at the moment its too long. I was hoping if someone could please read and provide feedback on my work, and tell me what is unnecessary (aka what i should take out)
Any help would be much appreciated!
Muslims are portrayed unfairly in the media
In 2011, a 63-year-old Southern California man was traveling with a trunk full of explosives in his vehicle with the intention of blowing up one of the nation's largest mosques, where over 500 people had gathered for a funeral. Fortunately, whatever damage he was planning to do was averted, thanks to authorities. But the mainstream media completely ignored this story. Now, just imagine the same thing had happened except the perpetrator was a Muslim man. His mug shot would be on every TV screen, every hour. Now what does that tell you about our media culture?
The media are the key influencers of public opinion of Muslims, and have portrayed negative representations and stereotypes of these people with political and media agenda in mind. Muslims have been portrayed unfairly in the media on many occasions. Not only has the Islamic community been stereotyped as terrorists through events such as the Gulf War and the 9/11 attacks, but the media has also been portraying Islam as a whole negatively, because of the acts of a small number of Muslim extremists, such as ISIS. There has also been the constant debate in the media, which has been going on for over a decade now, as to whether the burqa should be banned, as people find it ‘a threat to society.’ In a largely Christian society this hardly seems the fair attitude to have towards a minority and seemingly marginalized group. Yet it is a growing problem that has, and will continue to have devastating effects on Australia’s Muslim community.
It is no secret that the media shapes public opinion and covers realities by their censorship. The emerging picture of Islam in the press is less clear-cut than often assumed. An example of the media filtering the news to the public in order to give Muslims a negative image is when Australia became involved in the 1991 Gulf War. The media coverage in Australia largely ignored the destruction and loss that had occurred in Iraq, by simply focusing on the loss of American soldiers. This completely biased coverage provoked a wave of bitter anti-Arab sentiment, which inevitably resulted in violent, physical attacks against Muslims, and vandalisms against their homes, schools and mosques. The September 11 attacks also provided the Australian government with the opportunity to promote the notion that Australia was under threat from terrorist attacks by Muslims. This allowed them to claim that the current government was the only one that could keep the nation safe. These attacks also continued giving Muslims a negative reputation with the repetition of a single image of Palestinians allegedly rejoicing the tragedy of September 11 . Australian media’s repetition of this image essentially led the public to believe that all Muslims approved of these violent actions.
One cannot deny that on many occasions some Muslims are found involved in terrorist activities, such as ISIS. It is because of events like these that ultimately people blame Islam as a religion of grave terror and bloodshed. However the media, has manipulated, twisted and abused Islam’s name to portray it as intolerable and frightening. However what some people don’t understand is that there is an IMMENSE difference between an extremist terrorist group, and a religion. I suppose most people are familiar with the Ku Klux Klan, or at the very least, are aware that they were an extremist Christian group in America who twisted the meaning of Bible passages and the Lord’s words to justify carrying out violent acts of racism and white supremacy. Even today, they still exist, and inflict violence and racist acts upon innocent civilians. Sounds awfully similar to the situation with ISIS, right? But the media is carrying out a disgustingly inaccurate portrayal, and it is an injustice to those who peacefully practice Islam in their daily lives. Imagine if suddenly the media started portraying Christianity as violent, frightening and a breeding ground for terrorism. You would probably laugh, and think that this is ludicrous, because it is. Most of you, regardless of your stance on the ISIS issue, are probably smart enough to know that the KKK are in NO WAY a representation of Christianity. So why is the public allowing the media to manipulate them into believing that the existence, actions and beliefs of ONE extremist group in 2014 are a representation of an ENTIRE religion, which has been practiced around the world as peacefully as Christianity, for thousands of years?
Statistics show only 2.2% of the Australian population is Muslim. This means that an even smaller fraction actually wears the burqa. But in the world of news, burqas are everywhere, and are considered a threat to society. The debate as to whether the burqa should be banned has risen once again after Tony Abbott revealed in a news conference he finds it confronting and wishes it wasn’t worn. If it is because the dress conceals things, then the same argument could be made about many other forms of loose clothing. So where do we draw the line? Who determines whether one's attire is too loose to be considered safe? The point is that if someone wants to conceal something in their dress, no ban on the burqa is going to prevent this. Then also comes the issue of identification of the individual. It is understandable that at various times and in various places facial identification may be necessary, so the answer is simple: ask women to show their faces when identification is needed. This is the current practice where these women pass through customs and security checks at our airports. Common sense prevails as Muslim women understand and appreciate that in circumstances where their identity needs to be verified they have to remove their face covering. So instead of ridiculing and degrading these women because of their faith, we need to learn and accept their beliefs as they do with ours.
The media’s influence on the formation of public opinion is blaringly obvious through the perceptions we have formed of Australian Muslims. Through the negative representations and stereotypes the media depicts to us, Australians have associated Muslims with the likes of terrorists and religious fanatics and fundamentalists. Australia has isolated this minority group like no other, justifying this by claiming that Muslims simply do not fit in with the Australian way of life. This has resulted in acts of violence and vilification towards Muslims, which has had devastating effects both physically and psychologically. The negative representation of Muslims in Australian media has essentially led to how the religion of Islam is perceived. In a country that claims to be multicultural and religiously diverse, what is most surprising is our unwillingness to learn more of this religion and become more accepting of it and its followers.
Home
Help
Search
Login
