On Islam

Description

In the constant deluge of media coverage on Islam, Muslims are often portrayed as terrorists, refugees, radicals, or victims, depictions that erode human responses of concern, connection, or even a willingness to learn about Muslims. On Islam helps break this cycle with information and strategies to understand and report the modern Muslim experience. Journalists, activists, bloggers, and scholars offer insights into how Muslims are represented in the media today and offer tips for those covering Islam in the future. Interviews provide personal and often moving firsthand accounts of people confronting the challenges of modern life while maintaining their Muslim faith, and brief overviews provide a crash course on Muslim beliefs and practices. A concise and frank discussion of the Muslim experience, On Islam provides facts and perspective at a time when truth in journalism is more vital than ever.

Acknowledgments

Essays
Prologue: The Vision Behind Muslim Voices / Hilary Kahn
Chapter 1. Reflecting on Muslim Voices / Rosemary Pennington
Chapter 2. Shattering the Muslim Monolith / Arsalan Iftikhar
Chapter 3. So Near, Yet So Far: An Academic Reflection on the Endurance of American Islamophobia / Peter Gottschalk
Chapter 4. Life as a Muslim in the Media / Zarqa Nawaz
Chapter 5. The Prisons of Paradigm / Rafia Zakaria
Chapter 6. Unveiling Obsessions: Muslims and the Trap of Representation / Nabil Echchaibi
Chapter 7. How Does the British Press Represent British Muslims? Frameworks of Reporting in the UK Context / Elizabeth Poole
Chapter 8. How to Write about Muslims / Sobia Ali-Faisal and Krista Riley
Chapter 9. A Journalist Reflects on Covering Muslim Communities / Robert King
Chapter 10. Muslims in the Media: Challenges and Rewards of Reporting on Muslims / Ammina Kothari
Chapter 11. New Media and Muslim Voices / Rosemary Pennington

Muslim Voices
Voice 1. Faiz Rahman: Understanding Will Take Time
Voice 2. Sohaib Sultan: What Muslims Believe
Voice 3. Heather Akou: The Veil
Voice 4. Sheida Riahi: Arabic and Persian Calligraphy
Voice 5. Zaineb Istrabadi: The Sufi
Voice 6. Uzma Mirza: The Role of Women in Islam
Voice 7. Andre Carson: Life as a Muslim Politician
Voice 8. Sarah Thompson: Women in Islam, Converting
Voice 9. Daayiee Abdullah: Being Out and Being Muslim
Voice 10. Aziz Alquraini: Mosques—Houses of Prayer, Hearts of Communities

Crash Course in Islam
Crash Course 1. The Five Pillars of Islam
Crash Course 2. The Six Articles of Faith
Crash Course 3. The Profession of Faith
Crash Course 4. Do Muslims Worship Muhammad?
Crash Course 5. The Will of Allah
Crash Course 6. What Is Jihad?
Crash Course 7. What Is the Meaning of the Word "Islam"?
Crash Course 8. What Is a Fatwa?
Crash Course 9. The Qur'an: Just a Book?
Crash Course 10. Ishmael and Islam
Crash Course 11. Do Muslims Believe in Jesus?
Crash Course 12. The Crescent Moon and Islam
Crash Course 13. Muslim Prayer: How Do Muslims Pray?
Crash Course 14. Are Non-Muslims Allowed to Go to Mosque?
Crash Course 15. The Muslim Greeting
Index

Sujets

• Sociology of Religion
• Traditions
• Islamic Studies
• Social Science
• EDUCATION
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Multicultural education
• Customs
• Journalism

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 05 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253032560
• Langue: English

Extrait

ON ISLAM
ON ISLAM
Muslims and the Media
Edited by
ROSEMARY PENNINGTON and HILARY E. KAHN
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2018 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pennington, Rosemary, editor. | Kahn, Hilary E., editor.
Title: On Islam : Muslims and the media / Edited by Rosemary Pennington and Hilary E. Kahn.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017034239 (print) | LCCN 2017032898 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253032560 (e-book) | ISBN 9780253029348 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253032553 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Islam in mass media. | Muslims-Public opinion. | Islam-Customs and practices.
Classification: LCC P96.I84 (print) | LCC P96. I84 O5 2018 (ebook) | DDC 070.4/49297-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017034239
1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19 18
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
E SSAYS
Prologue: The Vision behind Muslim Voices / Hilary Kahn
1 Reflecting on Muslim Voices / Rosemary Pennington
2 Shattering the Muslim Monolith / Arsalan Iftikhar
3 So Near, Yet So Far: An Academic Reflection on the Endurance of American Islamophobia / Peter Gottschalk
4 Life as a Muslim in the Media / Zarqa Nawaz
5 The Prisons of Paradigm / Rafia Zakaria
6 Unveiling Obsessions: Muslims and the Trap of Representation / Nabil Echchaibi
7 How Does the British Press Represent British Muslims? Frameworks of Reporting in a British Context / Elizabeth Poole
8 How to Write about Muslims / Sobia Ali-Faisal and Krista Riley
9 A Journalist Reflects on Covering Muslim Communities / Robert King
10 Muslims in the Media: Challenges and Rewards of Reporting on Muslims / Ammina Kothari
11 New Media and Muslim Voices / Rosemary Pennington
M USLIM V OICES
1 Faiz Rahman: Understanding Will Take Time
2 Sohaib Sultan: What Muslims Believe
3 Heather Akou: The Veil
4 Sheida Riahi: Arabic and Persian Calligraphy
5 Zaineb Istrabadi: The Sufi
6 Uzma Mirza: The Role of Women in Islam
7 Andre Carson: Life as a Muslim Politician
8 Sarah Thompson: Women in Islam, Converting
9 Daayiee Abdullah: Being Out and Being Muslim
10 Aziz Alquraini: Mosques: Houses of Prayer, Hearts of Communities
C RASH C OURSE IN I SLAM
1 The Five Pillars of Islam
2 The Six Articles of Faith
3 The Profession of Faith
4 Do Muslims Worship Muhammad?
5 The Will of Allah
6 What Is Jihad?
7 What Is the Meaning of the Word Islam ?
8 What Is a Fatwa?
9 The Qur an: Just a Book?
10 Ishmael and Islam
11 Do Muslims Believe in Jesus?
12 The Crescent Moon and Islam
13 Muslim Prayer: How Do Muslims Pray?
14 Are Non-Muslims Allowed to Go to Mosque?
15 The Muslim Greeting
Notes
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T HIS VOLUME IS THE CULMINATION of a decade of work examining and challenging the representation of Islam and Muslims in media. Launched by Indiana University s Center for the Study of Global Change with support from the Social Science Research Council in 2008, the Voices and Visions of Islam and Muslims from a Global Perspective project worked to reframe the public understanding of Islam and Muslim life. This work was only made possible through support from and collaboration with our many partners, both at Indiana University and elsewhere. Among those partners are the staff of Indiana Public Media, including executive director Perry Metz, director of digital media Eoban Binder, and former producer Annie Corrigan. No longer with the outlet but still vital to the success of the project were Adam Schweigert, Christina Kuzmych, Cary Boyce, Liz Leslie, Megan Meyer, and Scott Witzke. The Center for the Study of Global Change relied on a number of Indiana University partners, including the African Studies Program, East Asian Studies Center, Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, Russia and East European Institute, Institute of European Studies, Center for the Study of the Middle East, Muslim Student Association, Media School, and School of Global and International Studies.
We worked hard to create partnerships not only at the university, but also in the larger community. Our collaborations with the Islamic Center of Bloomington, Bloomington Area Arts Council, and Monroe County Public Library helped make the project, and therefore this volume, stronger. We are also indebted to the Muslim Alliance of Indiana as well as the Islamic Society of North America for their support of this project.
We are, of course, thankful for the contributions of our advisory board to the project. Their thoughtful feedback and suggestions helped ensure that our scope remained broad and that we produced a mosaic of perspectives on Islam. Our board members are Asma Asfaruddin, Cigdem Balim, Gardner Bovingdon, Shakeela Hassan, Zaineb Istrabadi, Kevin Jaques, Ed Lazzerini, Christine Ogan, Janet Rabinowitch, Faiz Rahman, and Nazif Shahrani. The late Elsa Marston, activist and author, was also an active and dedicated board member. Program officer Tom Asher at the Social Science Research Council was quite helpful during the initial years of our project.
A special thank you goes out to the hosts of our podcasts, Manaf Bashir and Steve St. George. To listen to other podcasts about Islam and Muslim life beyond those in this book, visit the Voices and Visions website, www.muslimvoices.org .
ESSAYS
PROLOGUE
THE VISION BEHIND MUSLIM VOICES
Hilary Kahn
L ARGE SWATHS OF THE GENERAL public only encounter Islam and Muslims in news stories when something tragic or terrifying happens, such as the 2017 attacks in London and Istanbul and the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. The representation of Muslims in these stories often portrays them as radicalized, irrational, and uncontainable terrorists or depicts their suffering in a desensitized and inhumane way. While a story will occasionally be found in which Muslims are humanized or their faith contextualized, the typical narrative people find in news media is one that distances Islam and Muslims, decontextualizes the faith and its believers, misrepresents the religion as a security risk, and presents a community that is, quite simply, not us . This portrayal was shockingly exemplified in the 2015 story of Ahmed Mohamed, a Texas teenager who was disciplined by his school because he took parts of a digital clock to school. He was handcuffed and arrested by police and charged with taking a hoax bomb to school. It was suggested that Mohamed was disciplined and arrested because he was a Muslim and, therefore, suspect.
This is and always has been unacceptable, but the current onslaught of misrepresentations of Islam and Muslims is quite possibly more terrifying than the images in news media themselves. The perpetuation of such a framing is helping build impenetrable walls of indifference, dread, and fatigue, which prevent human responses of concern, connection, or even a willingness to learn. Examples of these ideological boundaries being fortified by the media abound. Muslim leaders are all potential terrorists, such as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi being depicted as the face of Islam. 1 In 2015, police initially refused to define the horrific shooting of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as a hate crime, instead diminishing it to a parking dispute. The press did not question this analysis and instead represented the incident as an isolated crime by a self-proclaimed bigot rather than being part of a larger systemic hatred and fear of Muslims.
American politics, of course, also has a role to play in the building of walls of indifference and distrust. During the US presidential election in 2016, then candidate Donald Trump claimed that Ghazala Khan, the mother of war hero Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in a car bombing while serving in Iraq in 2004, did not speak at the Democratic National Convention because, as a Muslim woman, she was prevented from speaking in public. Criticizing a Gold Star Family is unheard of in American politics, and the assumption that Mrs. Khan s silence at the convention was a sign of religious gender oppression rather than motherly grief quite simply would not have occurred had the family not been Muslim. Trump was among those who questioned whether President Barack Obama was legally allowed to hold that office, suggesting he was not a native-born United States citizen. This birther debate was wrapped up in race and religion, and a number of Americans believed (and still do) that Obama is a secret Muslim. The press did little to push back at this idea until former secretary of state Colin Powell worked to discredit it during an appearance on NBC s Meet The Press program.
Social media is ripe with a range of depictions of Islam, from the humane to the hateful. In March 2017, Twitter was filled with tweets using the hashtag Musl