What Muslims are taught in their mosques - unbiased

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Media views of Arabs distorted: study

From NineMSN.com
Friday 5 March 2004

Peter Manning, Dog Whistle Politics
and
Iain Lygo, News Overboard

Views of Arabic and Muslim people have been distorted by the Australian media since the tragedy of September 11, a controversial new study has found. The study by journalist Peter Manning examines media representations of Muslim and Arabic people before and after the terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Centre in 2001.

It examines the representation of Muslim people during peak events such as the Palestinian intifada, the south-west Sydney gang rape trials, an increase in the arrival of asylum seekers and the federal election of 2001.

Since September 11, asylum seekers have been portrayed in the country’s major print media as tricky, ungrateful and undeserving, the study, Dog Whistle Politics, claims. “In the most extreme cases they are disgusting and barely human (throwing their children overboard or breaking their bones),” Mr Manning wrote in his study. “The ordinary reader is drawn to the natural conclusion that they don’t deserve our compassion or sympathy and should be sent away.”

Mr Manning, a former news editor at the ABC and Channel Seven who currently lectures in journalism at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), said these representations suited government purposes by creating support for the closed-door policy on asylum seekers. His study uses examples of reports in two Sydney newspapers - The Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Telegraph - to highlight its case.

Sydney was chosen as the site for the study because of its large Arabic community, Mr Manning said. Seventy per cent of Australia’s Arabic speakers live in Sydney, with the biggest group being the Lebanese, he said. “Arab young men, in particular, are seen as especially threatening, wanting ‘our’ Caucasian women and not policed sufficiently by their own communities, who lack either values (respect for women) or interest (accepting responsibility) for these men,” the study said.

“This monograph suggests the representations of Arabic and Muslim people in our major print media are so distorted as to give good grounds for a major challenge.”

The release of the study coincides with the launch of another book on media reporting of Muslim issues.

News Overboard: the tabloid media, race politics, and Islam, by author Iain Lygo, examines media and government manipulation of news relating to Muslims and refugees.

“We are hoping that as these two books come out they will highlight some of the issues facing Australians and will help to rectify the trend of demonising a significant section of the community,” Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Keysar Trad said.

Mr Trad said the perception of Muslim and Arabic people had been distorted by media reports. “I can’t say that it’s always intentional and it often happens out of ignorance, a rush to get stories finished or shortage of newspaper space, but this causes harm and can result in the harassment of minorities. People are influenced by these reports and see all Muslims as part of the problem.”

©AAP 2004

news.ninemsn.com.au/
 
Islam Is A Religion of Peace… But How Do We Convince U?

By: Merryl Wyn Davies*

On Thursday, a well-rehearsed rescue operation swung into action. In the face of terror, the emergency services knew how to cope. Now the question is: are we as well rehearsed to cope with securing community harmony? Have we actually got a rescue plan to eradicate terror and its perpetrators?

After each atrocity, the Muslim community holds it breath and waits for the backlash. I am a British Muslim who is Welsh. Like all Muslims, I’m practised at the condemnation of outrages. But it still disturbs me that the reassurance of our condemnation is so eagerly sought, as if over condemnation might be in doubt rather than being the most natural human response to incomprehensible acts by people I don’t know.

The monsters who planned and executed the attacks so callously are supposedly Muslims. Faith is between each individual and God. What is in the hearts of these terrorists, God alone knows – I certainly don’t. But by their deeds I know they are nothing of me, the faith that is my secure handhold on life, the unequivocal morality it teaches.

These evil-doers violate every principle and precept I cherish. To condemn such fanatics is no test. To ask how such horrors make me feel is more telling. Where do I begin? And more importantly, will you hear what I mean? What stands between us is a function of terror. It creates awful facts and great challenges to mutual understanding.

It is also a function of history. European history has been written through the lens of a clash of civilisations in stereotypes, negatives and black propaganda. It creates a glib assurance that you know Islam and Muslims better than Muslims know themselves or Islam. It is a false per ception that forecloses communication, prevents understanding. You can never be reassured until you overcome this legacy.
 
cont.

But history exists for Muslims too. A different history, grounded in traditional strictures of religion, the rhetoric of explanation and exhortation and a vast diversity of cultural forms and manners developed in different circumstances to answer the different needs of time and place.

The result is complications wherever I turn. I am triangulated by overlapping obstacle courses standing in the way of being and becoming a British Muslim who confidently contributes to the betterment of this society with my distinctive identity and moral compass to the fore. The problem is not mine alone, it belongs to the condition of being a Muslim, now and in Britain.

Mad men with bombs in London, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, Bali, Turkey and elsewhere; military men – poor bloody soldiers – despatched from London and Washington all make our predicament more and more urgent. The times demand we Muslims become explicit, set our agenda and get on with making a difference.

To make a difference in the world, we have to make meaningful change in ourselves. There is little point endlessly complaining about how misunderstood we are when by sheer thoughtlessness some of the good and decent people talk and behave in ways that confirm the very prejudices and stereotypes we object to. There is little point in insisting Islam is a religion of peace, whose central principle is justice, when the traditional language of religion we use and the way we operate invokes images of war and defiance, emphasises exclusivity, and prejudicially stereotypes non-Muslims.
 
cont
As Muslims we decode what lies behind these messages. We know that what sounds like blood curdling rhetoric intends to teach us peace, tolerance and numerous virtues. You might call it the “onward Christian soldiers” syndrome, “marching as to war”. What it means to those in the pews is “follow the path of the Prince of Peace”. But in whichever religious tradition it occurs – and it afflicts them all – eventually such language has to be jettisoned. It always gives aid and comfort to those who would pervert the message to their own malicious, brutal ends.

To be peaceful and tolerant and to implement the values our religion teaches, we have to find new language and fresh ways appropriate to our condition here and now in Britain. And that means as Muslims we have to resolve the dilemma of tradition. We have to reason our way beyond our past.

The spirit and intelligence that created our traditions in times and places long ago and far away is what we have to rediscover. We have to get beyond just acting out the strict letter of laws whose essence is to constantly be rethought to keep them alive and pertinent. And most of all it is the breadth of Islam’s moral vision we have to put into action, the values that bid us to consult democratically, to co-operate and refashion a just society for and with people of all faiths and no faith. It is the problems of Britain that must be our concern, the focus of our determination to contribute.

In truth, much is already under way. Young British Muslims are working to define their identity in the here and now, wrestling with the reality of the problems of their own communities and the towns and cities where they live. Islam is the moral compass that guides them.

But a new identity – British by birth, Muslim by conviction – cannot emerge in isolation. It poses questions for British society as a whole. Britishness has always been diverse, we are a nation of nations. It has taken the UK centuries to resolve and formally acknowledge what Welsh, Scots and Irish have always known. What existed on the fringes was a cultural identity seeking space to express itself in distinctive ways. The challenge of the future for a multi-faith, multicultural Britain must build on these experiences.

To resolve our dilemmas, Britain must find ways to listen. Muslims have to be responsible for defining themselves, for being the authorities on what they can become. As many have said in recent days, the British way of life and values must not and will not be derailed by terrorists. Nor can the Muslim way of life and values. Nor can the making of a Muslim British identity that puts its values in service of our common good.

As a student in London, I used to walk through Tavistock Square on my way to university. Now the shattered wreckage of a bus and so many broken bodies lie there. We have all been touched by the horror of recent days. But the determination I draw from these images is not mine alone. It is the constant and growing swell of earnest discussion at meetings and con ferences where British Muslims come together.

The reassurance and new direction you seek is ready to be found. Together we can make it defeat mass murderers who would silence and divide us.

These are my feelings and thoughts. But they are not mine alone. I share them, attend conferences and meetings where they are earnestly discussed with young and old of the British Muslim community. We need your willingness to listen. There must be a new agenda, new debates, new action in new directions if we are to eradicate the fanatical mass murderers who would silence and divide us.

Merryl Wyn Davies is co-author of The No- Nonsense Guide To Islam, published by New Internationalist Publications​

 
Rodrigo_Bivar said:
As if…

Why did you bring up the hadith then?

Oh… please don’t base your knowledge of Islam on your friends not practising jihad on disbelievers. ** - but the doctrine of jihad is well enshrined in Islam via the Quran.

That is the REAL Islam, by the way.**

But, every Muslim (at least those who seek to practice Islam) does practice Jihad. Jihad is a central aspect of Isalm. What they don’t do is define Jihad as narrowly as you have defined it.
Montalban;2642990:
PRESENTLY is the key word in an almost admission of your error. I noted that the majority of thought over the majority of time believe that it is central to Islam; indeed there are some modernists PRESENTLY opposed to this; you take them to be the majority.
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Presently is important for our discussion here, because the topic of this thread is “What Muslims are taught in their mosques - unbaiased.” That very much makes it about the present. And yes, I do take those that you label as modernists to be the majority. Even the Pew poll shows that to be the case, and to be so overwhelmingly.
Palladio said:
On the assumption that the seven percent are dead wrong, I’ll model the problem.

Swiss drug company x announces that seven percent of its aspirin, not the top seller but widely available, is laced with a fatal poison in its U. S. market.

Two kinds of people are most directly concerned, even linked to this sad fact: the makers, who must be reeling from surprise and disgust at the high percentage of failure in their product; the prospective buyers, who now face a certain situation, whether they have bought the drug or not.
Click to expand...
And you will note that I am not selling Islam, of either variety.

As for the aspirin, we find out in which lot that which is poisoined was made and recall all of it from the shelves. But we do not recall all aspirin, not even all aspirin by that company, only that lot which has the poision in it. If you saw a company doing this with its product (such as Tylenol did when its product was tampered with, now many years ago) you would probably maintain confidence in the company, even if temporarily skittish of the product.

Well, listen, Islam has spoken out against that which it sees as a poision within it. One doesn’t see this often in the major news media, but it does exists and I have tried to show you that it continues in all sorts of ways from one Muslim to another. Perhaps they are not vocal enough to suit you, but that does not mean that the central element of Jihad is war or violence. You simply define Jihad differently than do Muslims when you think of Jihad this way. Just read what Fatma has provided above to hear the other voice.
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AgnosTheist said:
maybe not, but religious warfare is still a significant part of Jihad.
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Hey, hey! A comment I can agree with.

As long as it exists at all, I think we must look at it as significant. But few and far between will be the mosques that actually teach it.

(Or, rethinking that idiomatic phrase I just used, perhaps it would be more accurate to say, few world-wide and geographically regionalized, will be the mosques that actually teach it.)
 
Grace Seeker:
But, every Muslim (at least those who seek to practice Islam) does practice Jihad.
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Untrue. You have fallen for the old ‘Jihad akbar is peaceful jihad’ and ‘Muslims practise this form of jihad’ trick.

It turns out that this peaceful jihad may be a fraud as it was based on a fradulent or weak hadith. I have given the link to prove that.

The only jihad in the Quran is the violent form. That is the form that is repeated ad nauseum in the Quran.
Grace Seeker:
Jihad is a central aspect of Isalm. What they don’t do is define Jihad as narrowly as you have defined it.
Click to expand...
I didn’t define it. Muhammad did in the Quran.
 
Grace_Seeker said:
But, every Muslim (at least those who seek to practice Islam) does practice Jihad. Jihad is a central aspect of Isalm. What they don’t do is define Jihad as narrowly as you have defined it.

Presently is important for our discussion here, because the topic of this thread is “What Muslims are taught in their mosques - unbaiased.” That very much makes it about the present. And yes, I do take those that you label as modernists to be the majority. Even the Pew poll shows that to be the case, and to be so overwhelmingly.

And you will note that I am not selling Islam, of either variety.

As for the aspirin, we find out in which lot that which is poisoined was made and recall all of it from the shelves. But we do not recall all aspirin, not even all aspirin by that company, only that lot which has the poision in it. If you saw a company doing this with its product (such as Tylenol did when its product was tampered with, now many years ago) you would probably maintain confidence in the company, even if temporarily skittish of the product.

Well, listen, Islam has spoken out against that which it sees as a poision within it. One doesn’t see this often in the major news media, but it does exists and I have tried to show you that it continues in all sorts of ways from one Muslim to another. Perhaps they are not vocal enough to suit you, but that does not mean that the central element of Jihad is war or violence. You simply define Jihad differently than do Muslims when you think of Jihad this way. Just read what Fatma has provided above to hear the other voice.
Click to expand...
I hope that you do not work for a drug company.

Seven percent is a catastropic failure which would entail automatic recall of all the aspirin, of course, as we know from the Tylenol poisonings years ago. *Anything less than a complete recall is grotesquely immoral.
*

(You assume, what is impossible, omniscience in the drug company, which arrives at such a figure by a random scientific means, not an exhaustive one.)

I don’t believe a word of what Fatma posts, today or at any time: accomodation of Muslims seems rather the norm in the U. K. (where the proportion of them is greater due to the decay of the British empire) or is approaching it: that is why I posted on another thread the sad news from Scotland…

I think you write from charity, the greatest of virtues, but, for what it is worth, I must say I am still unconvinced.

Islam in many forms remains a threat in many ways–not least a threat to Christianity the world over–and I see no end to the opposition to it armed or no.

God bless.
 
Grace_Seeker said:
But few and far between will be the mosques that actually teach it.

(Or, rethinking that idiomatic phrase I just used, perhaps it would be more accurate to say, few world-wide and geographically regionalized, will be the mosques that actually teach it.)
Click to expand...
compared with other religions out there (which hardly incorporates politics & warfare in religion), islam’s frequency of violent preaching is alarming.

yes its mostly regional, the middle east mostly. there its not just the mosques, in Iran they even advertise jihad in their t.v. commercials. in palestine children learn it from a kids show.
 
AgnosTheist said:
compared with other religions out there (which hardly incorporates politics & warfare in religion), islam’s frequency of violent preaching is alarming.

yes its mostly regional, the middle east mostly. there its not just the mosques, in Iran they even advertise jihad in their t.v. commercials. in palestine children learn it from a kids show.
Click to expand...
It seems that Africa and Indian sub-Continent are not free from Islamic terrism either.

8/27/07 Thailand Pattani A female teacher is murdered by Muslim radicals in front of her school.
8/26/07 Pakistan Swat A suicide bomber kills four Pakistanis at a checkpoint.
8/26/07 Pakistan Bajaur A 40-year-old civilian is shot to death by Taliban extremists.
8/26/07 Iraq Mahmudiyah Sunni terrorists kill a child in a mortar attack.
8/26/07 Iraq Baghdad A female pilgrim and several children are among Shias targeted by radical Sunnis, as a dozen people are killed.
8/26/07 Somalia Mogadishu Two young boys and an adult are killed by a bomb planted in a school yard.
8/26/07 Thailand Yala Two rubber tappers are murdered by Islamic radicals while on their way to work.
8/26/07 Somalia Mogadishu Two people are killed in separate grenade attacks by Islamic extremists.
 
Well, I am obviously in the minority on this thread and am convincing no one as we are all each already convinced of our own truth. But who here has actually sat in a mosque and listened to the teaching there? When you start sharing with me those experiences, maybe I’ll believe the rabid views of Islam that are being expressed here. I have, and what I have heard is not what you are claiming is being preached.
 
Grace_Seeker said:
Well, I am obviously in the minority on this thread and am convincing no one as we are all each already convinced of our own truth. But who here has actually sat in a mosque and listened to the teaching there? When you start sharing with me those experiences, maybe I’ll believe the rabid views of Islam that are being expressed here. I have, and what I have heard is not what you are claiming is being preached.
Click to expand...
A couple of things bother me. It is true that there are millions of wonderful Muslims, and that there are many good things about Islam. However, I was very seriously disturbed by the tragedy at Beslan on September 1, 2004. What kind of people would target 1000 innocent Christian school children?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan
 
bobzills said:
A couple of things bother me. It is true that there are millions of wonderful Muslims, and that there are many good things about Islam. However, I was very seriously disturbed by the tragedy at Beslan on September 1, 2004. What kind of people would target 1000 innocent Christian school children?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan
Click to expand...
People denatured by Islamo-facism, for starters.
 
In my opinion, a lot of things that get labelled acts of Islamic terrorism are really acts of political terrorism committed by people who happen to be Islamic. I think that is the case with the majority of the suicide bombings in Iraq as they are Muslim on Muslim crimes, not intended to defend Islam or advance the Islamic cause in the world, but purely for a groups own political goals.

Now bin Laden is definitely an Islamic terrorist, as was the Intifada and its succeeding manifestations. And admittedly sometimes when dealing with Islam one cannot really distinguish between a poltical and a religious motivation for they are so mixed together as one. But I do think that Beslan was an act of political terrorism committed by people who saw themselves primarily as fighting for a Chechen, not Muslim, cause.
 
Grace_Seeker said:
In my opinion, a lot of things that get labelled acts of Islamic terrorism are really acts of political terrorism committed by people who happen to be Islamic.
Click to expand...
Grace, Islam is politics. Its not like your average religion.
 
^ thanks for clarifying. i think its wrong to completely remove the religious aspect in beslan. Those islamists hijacked that school prepared to die, become martyrs.
 
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