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Israel/Palestine
Showing Original Post only (View all)How to write about Muslims [View all]
Media depictions of Muslims kill two birds with one stone, justifying oppression at home and imperial devastation abroadLast Modified: 31 Mar 2013 11:19
A study commissioned by the Greater London Authority of 352 articles over a randomly selected one week period in 2007, found that 91 percent of articles about Muslims were "negative" [Getty Images]
Belen Fernandez is the author of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, published by Verso. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin Magazine.
*The Western press and social media often seem to exercise two options for dealing with the Muslim population of the world: overt, unabashed Islamophobia or slightly subtler Islamophobia.
As Georgetown University's John L Esposito writes in the foreword to Nathan Lean's The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims, 9/11 and other terror attacks "have exacerbated the growth of Islamophobia exponentially" and resulted in a situation in which "Islam and the Middle East often dominate the negative headlines", thanks in part to the calculated machinations of "a number of journalists and scholars".
Needless to say, the aftermath of 9/11 did not yield much thoughtful consideration on the part of the mainstream punditry as to the context for such events. According to one prominent narrative, 9/11 was simply evidence of an inherent and unfounded Muslim hatred of the West.
A notable exception was veteran British journalist Robert Fisk. In an article published in The Nation immediately following the attacks, Fisk issued the following prescient warning:
remainder: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/20133317493211602.html
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There are a great number of posters here who have a problem with religion period.
Mosby
Apr 2013
#20
Well - to be fair, a lot of articles about antisemitism in Europe/America also end up here.
LeftishBrit
Apr 2013
#10
What did this OP you posted about Muslims and Jews in the UK have to do with the IP group?
Violet_Crumble
Apr 2013
#14
Thanks for making clear where you stand..not many posters would be that frank as
Jefferson23
Apr 2013
#18
Usually when we take a story from elesewhere on DU it is polite to give credit for that n/t
azurnoir
Apr 2013
#22
Clarify for me, if you would. Your remark, Since our host is going to allow religion threads in IP..
Jefferson23
Apr 2013
#27
It was a confirmation I was looking for, if it was considered about religion by the host.
Jefferson23
Apr 2013
#31
You have no idea what she is about, do you, shira. You had thought her opinions
Jefferson23
Apr 2013
#33
Oh this is rich, shira defending Muslims. The OP is about Western media bias, not religion.
Jefferson23
Apr 2013
#47
I know what you have a problem with, shira. It is evident in everyone of your posts and
Jefferson23
Apr 2013
#51
There are no lies here, shira. If you read the article, you'd know that...but that is not what
Jefferson23
Apr 2013
#53
The lie is that there's no distinction to be made b/w extreme Islamists and moderate Muslims. n/t
shira
Apr 2013
#70
"Why don't moderate and liberal Muslims speak out about stuff like this?" where have I read that b4?
azurnoir
Apr 2013
#35