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Muslims in the Media: Appreciating the Imperfections
By Tamanna Rahman
I often hear the complaint, with some justification, from many friends that Muslims are almost always portrayed negatively in the media; as wildly exaggerated caricatures of stereotypical backward types, or as the vanguard of the new feminist movement who are using driving lessons to kick start the revolution.
For some reason, they say, of all the immigrant religious communities that live in Britain, Sikhs and Hindus are seen as being more integrated and seem to get a better press. How do they manage it without trying, they wonder? It’s not like Muslims are so very different.
Of course, there’s a very simple answer to this. Muslims aren’t always portrayed negatively in the media. They’re portrayed mostly negatively in the news, because the news is there primarily to report on bad stuff, and unfortunately there are Muslims who are doing a lot of seriously bad stuff. And of course, during a time of economic doom and gloom, nothing makes people happier than communal moaning against a perceived enemy. You could argue some journalists are actually doing a public service. Obviously at the serious disadvantage of one community, but Muslims are always advised to act for the greater good. Being the scapegoat is almost like a charitable act. There’s probably a prophetic saying about it somewhere.
And in other media – documentaries, films and soaps, for example – watching decent, law abiding people would be about as interesting as watching a day in the life of Ned Flanders. You watch most programmes for the unfolding dramas, and drama only happens where there’s a rubbing point. Through them you find out who a person really is, and what makes them tick. You find them annoying, you hate them, you respect them, you grow to love them.
A prime example of Sikhs getting good press recently was Channel 4’s “The Family” which was brilliant. If you haven’t watched it, I recommend it highly. Here’s an average Asian family, where their Sikhness was a beautiful accompaniment to the drama of their lives. Despite all the ups and downs (often relating to cultural values), and character flaws you end up leaving with a really positive image of just a normal family.
The problem isn’t that Sikhs or Hindus get better press because there’s a vendetta against portraying Muslims in a positive light. The real problem is that there just aren’t enough Muslims willing to open up their lives, be the story and allow the development of a relationship with the audience.
I was recently working in development – that murky part of the television industry where people mooch around for a few hours on the internet, or reading newspapers, trying to come up with the next big idea that will keep them in employment for the next few months. It’s not like there’s not an appetite for life stories from different communities. If anything, there’s a thirst for it.
But there was clearly a disconnection. Nobody I spoke to really wanted to talk about their issues for any ideas I had about their family stories.
There are probably two main reasons for this. One; a sometimes justified distrust of how your story will be edited, but mainly; nobody wanted to air their dirty linen in public. What would the community say?
For this, I can only point to The Family and say there were any number of issues going on in that family – a daughter whose family had disowned her. A father who was slightly misogynistic (in a charming kind of way). An incredibly lazy younger son who just slept all day. But you never felt anything other than this was a charming family who were just getting on with their own lives.
There is a problem with Islamophobia in this country, but it’s not going to really go away, unfortunately, until people feel they know that Muslims are normal people. At the moment, most of what they see will be what makes the news.
In the coming years, the next challenge for Muslims will be to become comfortable with the media as a means of entertainment – rather than (mis)information. We need to have a laugh at ourselves, not take ourselves too seriously and not judge each other so harshly. Forget about what the community will say. Yes, any Muslim on TV for a non-news item is a bit of a novelty. But we need to get to a place where it’s just a normal part of British TV.
And next time, when I come knocking on your door asking about your 5 year old son’s drinking problem, please say yes.
Tamanna Rahman is a Broadcast Journalist with BBC News. In October 2009 she presented an eye-opening episode of Panorama dealing with racism in Britain, for which she was subsequently awarded the Royal Television Society award for Young Journalist of the Year in 2010. Tamanna read History at the University of Manchester.
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10 Comments
Opiya
There is truth in what you say. We do need to take ourselves a little less seriously sometimes and we really need to judge each other less. We aren’t perfect and that needs to be acknowledged. And in a time when entertainment and humour is the medium, it is important to learn to embrace it a little so people can see how everyday and normal Muslims really are.
But at the same time, the Muslim community and it’s perception within the wider community is not like other communities. There is a major difference in the way Muslims are spotlighted and [mis]understood, which I don’t think merely embracing the entertainment genre of the period will sufficiently serve to address. The media is a source of information also, and that must continue to be addressed and dealt with.
LibertyPhile
The media don’t portray Muslims one way or the other. Most of the time they are reporting events about what people actually did or said.
The old excuse that they fail to report “good news” doesn’t stack up either. In the analysis of news stories carried in the study commissioned by Ken Livingstone while he was mayor of London, “The search for common ground: Muslims, non-Muslims and the UK media”, the Guardian had a similar proportion of negative stories about Muslims as the rest of the British Press. [The Gaurdian even had a member on the team that carried out Mr Livingstone's study!]
Consider the following:
# A British businessman facing jail in Dubai after he was accused of kissing a woman in public.
# Over two dozen Saudi religious scholars have come out in support of a fatwa (which) called for the death of those who promote gender mixing in workplaces and educational institutes.
# statement recorded on prime time TV of a senior official of the Islamic Forum of Europe in a programme about Islamist infiltration of the British Labour party. “Democracy, if it means not implementing the sharia, no one’s going to agree with that.”
# Faisal Siddiqi of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) criticism of the British media for its obsession with beheadings and other extreme punishments. “They constitute only 10% of sharia.” he says.
# Dr Hasan, of the Islamic Sharia Council, views on the desirability of the cutting off of hands and flogging. His views are the relative ease of divorce initiated by a man
# Current thinking by some Muslims on the matter of death for apostasy: Muslim chaplain at Harvard toying with idea of executing apostates?
# Indonesia’s Aceh to stone adulterers under Islamic law
# Iran court upholds death by stoning verdict for two Azeris
# Why the evidence of a woman is worth less than that of a man. Explined on the Islamic Sharia Council website.
# British Muslims are the least integrated in Europe, only one in 10 is integrated. Gallup Co-exist survey.
# A Muslim woman may not marry a non-Muslim man. [Apparently 51% of British Muslims agree with this]
# German Mosques Raided Over Wife-Beating Manual
# Muslim prisoners ‘refuse to take part in rehabilitation programmes’
# After Attack on Danish Cartoonist The West Is Choked by Fear
All this is the small tip of a very large iceberg.
Opiya
Libertyphile, unfortunately I am not so endowed with free time as you frequently prove yourself to be, but I will address a few of your points:
-Dubai is not an Islamic state. It is a Muslim state. There is a difference.
-If you knew the number of Islamic scholars out there, the nature and complexity of Islamic law and the sheer breadth and scope for interpretation and opinions, you’d realise half your other points are not points but are merely a reflection of a seriously simplistic understanding of the Islamic Legal System. Please get a grounding in the field first if you wish to comment on it. And please take the rest of the British media with you when you do.
-Quoting randomly out of context ala Andrew Gilligan proves nothing.
-British Muslims are in fact the most patriotic in Europe: http://www.mcb.org.uk/media/presstext.php?ann_id=380
And as you’re quoting Gallup, please feel free to read this: http://www.gallup.com/press/104209/Who-Speaks-Islam-What-Billion-Muslims-Really-Think.aspx
The media portraying a community one way or another is not a case of not relating what people actually said or did. It is more about relating what some people said or did, and doing so frequently to make it seem that those people reflect the majority view. Like Islam4Uk’s Anjem Chaudary. No one is denying what the man said. But the British media gave him unbelievable attention as if his insignificant group of a handful of ill-thinking individuals represented anything more that 0.000001% of the Muslim community. Meanwhile the rest of the normal thinking British Muslims and their protests against Chaudary weren’t given anything near as much attention.
freedom hunter
Great article Tamanna. I was wondering the other day why the only time you see Muslims in on The Apprentice. But I think you are right that more Sikhs and Hindus have opened their doors much wider than Muslims. But I believe we are getting there. In Meera Syals documentary on self harm I was pleasently surprised with the number of asian and muslim people who came forward and discuss the issue. But behind this I think there is a fear of the reception someones paticipation may have with both the non muslim and muslim community. And when you have left those doors open your are vulnerable to the good bad and ugly.
I also feel there is pressure for muslims that go on media channels to not do anything to compromise Islam. I believe Islam has been tarnished somewhat by the media. To just comment on LibertyPhiles first comment “most of the time they are reporting what people actually did or said” I do not think is accurate. Majoriy if not all media does not have their central focus to be an account of what happened without having first and foremeost an idea of how they wanted to be portrayed or the angle of which they are comming from. This task is almost impossible, although many like BBC try. Many newspapers are somewhat open about this and are aware that if they did not have subtle spins or an agenda behind their journalism- it would be boring and not sell. Similarly we have a responsibiliy to be fair and present the truth. Many Muslims claim in some cases the truth is being under represented and being sacrificed for a more interesting untruthful story or for alternative negative portrayals of the subject matter.
There is an interesting quote
Malcom x:The media is the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innoscent look guilty and to make the guilty innoscent. Because they control the minds of the masses”
LibertyPhile
Opiya
# “the number of Islamic scholars out there, the nature and complexity of Islamic law and the sheer breadth and scope for interpretation and opinions” IS part of the problem.
This (typical Muslim) response to criticism is feeble. I do have some time, but not that much that I can “get a grounding” in the field. Why should I? Right and wrong are not that complicated.
The news items covered grim but straight-forward matters such as the ease with which a Muslim man can get a divorce compared with a woman, domestic violence, stoning to death, and murdering people for drawing cartoons. What do Muslims do? shop around until they find a ruling to their liking?
The fatwa I referred to came from a top scholar supported by other top scholars in Saudi Arabia, the home of the two holy places. What should I do, listen to what the iman down the road says?
And what, BTW do you think of the fatwa? If you think it’s nonsense, why don’t you say so.
# I didn’t quote randomly or out of context. The quote putting sharia in place of democracy was in line with and supported by all the evidence the Andrew Gilligan programme convincingly brought to light.
# Regarding the claims of patriotism have you read the report itself rather than just the MCB press release? There is a good analysis of it here: http://libertyphile2.blogspot.com/2010/01/british-muslims-most-patriotic-in.html
# I have read the Gallup Coexist report (as well as the Gallup publicity you linked to). There is also a good analysis of it here. http://libertyphile2.blogspot.com/2010/01/gallup-coexist-study-2009-headlines-you.html
# Anjem Chaudary is a red herring. A lot of people don’t read the Daily Mail / Daily Express and most of us are a quite able to recognise him as an extreme nutter and unrepresentative of British Muslims.
# What would happen to the kissing couple in an Islamic state?
Opiya
You seem to be [perhaps unconsciously] associating Islam with Roman Catholicism. As such, I reiterate that a grounding in the Islamic Legal system needs to be had, before commenting.
A fatwa is not a religious edict. It is merely an informed legal opinion by a qualified Muslim scholar – ie it is not binding. Scholars are not like the Pope. In the Islamic Legal system, context is a major consideration. Whereas in RC, Rome and Papal authority are important considerations, in Islam legal qualification and contextual awareness is important. Hence, while those scholars may be top scholars in the land of the two holy sites, they are scholars of their region particularly in relation to such smaller legal opinions such as segregation. In the UK, we would apply to the top scholars of our region and context. People like Dr Abdullah Judai of Leeds, Dr Timothy Winter of Cambridge, etc. So yes, I would recommend you go to your local Imam if he’s a qualified one. These scholars I’ve named, btw, would undoubtedly disagree with this Saudi opinion. Yes, I’m opposed to it too. Also the Saudi press, which has been opposed to the fatwa, has had to admit that only a few scholars backed this opinion. So it isn’t a big issue, much as you may like to make it, and will not have practical impact. With the many 1000s of scholars out there, brandishing the view of two dozen hardly stands.
‘Right and wrong are not that complicated’ – really? Is that the simplistic way the British legal system is governed? Somehow, I don’t think so. The intricacies in the Islamic legal system, in relation to the scope and means of interpretation and reinterpretation, the need for qualification, etc are all there to ensure the competent adaptability of laws to changing circumstances and times. This is something that Prof Mashood Baderin discussed elsewhere in this site, I believe. Had it been simplistic, you’d have been stuck with a set of monolithic, rigid and dated laws.
Re Andrew Gilligan’s programme – I have watched it and have read most of his articles in the run up and wake of it. His journalism is awful to say the least. The evidence was weak and he convincingly proves nothing yet shamelessly claims everything. The organisation in question addressed much of his claims too here: http://blog.islamicforumeurope.com/?p=1107
along with some others: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/03/muslims_found_i.html and http://iengage.org.uk/component/content/article/1-news/780-review-of-gilligans-islamic-republic-c4-documentary-about-the-ife
Re Anjem Chaudary, he was hardly only covered by the Mail and Express. BBC and many other more respectable outlets covered him. It is therefore symptomatic of a broader imbalance in reporting. You may find this article interesting: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/the-shameful-islamophobia-at-the-heart-of-britains-press-861096.html
I don’t know what would happen to the kissing couple in an Islamic state. But feel free to ask your local Imam if you really want to know.
LibertyPhile
Opiya,
Thank you for the micro-grounding in the Islamic Legal system.
In fact, I was thinking of medieval churchmen who used Latin to protect their position as interpreters of religion.
From what you say, it is perfectly possible for the issues I mentioned – the ease with which a Muslim man can get a divorce compared with a woman, domestic violence, stoning to death, and murdering people for drawing cartoons – (and similar important matters) to be ruled (advised) upon in totally different ways from one country to another.
This is crazy, in my opinion.
And, what happens when there are competing scholars in a country? That seems to be the case in the UK. Are Dr Suhaib Hasan and the Islamic Sharia Council (who charge a woman more for a divorce than a man because her word has to be corroborated) of no account?
I’m glad to hear that the fatwa I referred to about executing people for allowing different sexes to mix is unpopular even in Saudi Arabia.
I think fatwas must be like buses, if you miss one another one (opinion) will be along in a minute.
For example: ”A PROPOSAL to introduce prison terms for men who beat their wives goes against the Koran and the teachings of the “prophet” Mohammed, according to the head of Algeria’s Superior Islamic Council.” [Reported in Ansa.it (not the British media, as far as I know)]
‘Right and wrong are not that complicated’ – yes, really! And, I completely agree that circumstances are important in making and applying laws.
I see the sense in the statement “The intricacies in the Islamic legal system, in relation to the scope and means of interpretation and reinterpretation, the need for qualification, etc are all there to ensure the competent adaptability of laws to changing circumstances and times” but then I read, for example, this statement from a senior Islamic “scholar” who says “The role of the ulama is only to teach and to explain the meaning of the Text and not to change the very meaning by interpreting and re-interpreting over and over again.”
It really is very odd that Andrew Gilligan / Dispatches who are renowned for their investigative journalism and who have dealt with issues such as Islamophobia (Dispatches, ‘It Shouldn’t Happen to a Muslim’, which is mentioned in the article about press balance you asked me to look at), have got it so wrong, in your opinion, in the case of Tower Hamlets.
Opiya
Your relating it to medieval churchmen reflects upon the mistaken approach to Islam often seen in Britain. Taking a Eurocentric approach imposes European religions and ideas upon non-European issues – this is fundamentally flawed. Islam is not Christianity and is not like Christianity so can’t be judged upon its terms.
Re the positions you’ve listed, again you’d need to know the context and framework for most them [I particularly exclude the killing of the cartoonists as that is not a ruling but a random opinion by one guy as far as I’m aware]. They say text without context is pretext – and there is a lot of wisdom in that.
Prejudice and misunderstanding is formed from knowing little yet thinking we have it figured, rather than from knowing absolutely nothing. Your opinion on fatwas rather reflects this. Trust me, from Islamophobia to outlandish fatwas, they come from the same root cause – limited knowledge and understanding of Islam.
To answer your questions, you’d have to go into a whole Islamic Studies course, so it’d be a lot easier if you just went and read up on it yourself. From credible sources – not the media, nor Wikipedia. Nor even my ‘micro-grounding.’ You may want to speak to someone trained and credible too.
As for Andrew Gilligan’s programme, it is the point that Dispatches often display commendable journalism yet were willing to put their credibility on the line by airing that program that jarred me most – which I made clear in my complaint to them.
Emmatullah
hmm….
though i do think the blameis not entirely to be attributed to ourselves; i do find it completely ineffectual to blame anyone else.
that being said, i agree,
perhaps wholeheartedly with the idea of “normalising” the muslim life.
so while i do think that muslims ought only present what is acceptable by islamic standards, i think as well, that because alhamdulilah,there is so much leeway in the halal range, that we ought to take advantage of that and use all that range of halal to do daa’wa
though it not be entertainment, as one of the sisters expressed that concern, i think we ought to be artful and creative, if only to branch out of the common “respectable professions” for i truly do believe that while the doctors and mathmeticians and scientists of this ummah make astoundign differences, it is up to the humanities and the arts to change the way people percieve the world. to “create” a muslim culture, especially in the west, as it were.
onward, inshaAllah ^____^
Very interesting viewpoint Tamanna and interesting seeing your perspective from the inside. But I’m just wondering, is being entertaining the way to go? True, we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously, and need some anger management sessions sometimes, but throwing yourself in the public eye is a risk. A big risk! I’m just not sure it would be right to do a kind of reality TV show about Muslims when we already have a pile of negativity to our name…perhaps something more intellectually-stimulating would work…