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Muslim media and the 'war on terror' I have identified 4 major themes which ran through both the papers and the discussions that followed. They are:
The identification of these themes is my interpretation of the papers and the discussions, and is only intended to make my account of the conference easier to follow for non-participants. I have identified particular points with speakers as far as possible.
Theme 1 - framing. Only one paper explicitly used a formalised model of framing; however, many papers referred to the way in which media accounts of relevant events implicitly or explicitly cast them in such-and-such a light, which I take to be the essential element in framing theory. The most frequently raised framing question addressed the issue of whether media - both in the West and in the Islamic world - presented current events as part of the 'war on terror' or as part of a war on Islam (papers by Hamid, Allison, Hafez, Nelson, Miladi, Mørck). Issues such as the occurrence of these phrases themselves, or terms such as 'martyr' or the 'cartoon crisis', were a frequent element in discussion. S. Hamid pointed to a convergence between representations of the 'war on terror' in UK Muslim media and traditionally left-wing analyses of hegemony and imperialism - in other words, the extent to which UK Muslim media set up an oppositional framing of current events. O. Allison's paper addressed the use of the concept 'martyr' in Islamic culture and media, arguing that there was an intense debate in the Islamic world about the justifiability of the term to label terrorist attacks, and pointing out that when viewed transnationally, there was little consistency in who was accepted as a martyr by which media; the inconsistencies seemed to follow the political affiliations of media or more broadly of Governments. O. Hafez contrasted the representations of the killing of Rafiq Hariri and of Sheikh Yassin, in terms of the labels used and the type of responsibility for the deaths attributed by different media. S. Mørck reported on the attitudes of editorial staff at the Islamic Channel towards the 'cartoon crisis' aroused by cartoons of the prophet Mahomet in a Danish newspaper: the editorial staff questioned whether the crisis was caused by the Muslim response cartons or by an Islamophobia that pre-existed the cartoons. S. Nelson analysed the ways in which 3 English language newspapers published in South-East Asia had framed the bombings in Bali, focussing especially on the attribution of a relationship between religion and the attacks; over time, reporting of this relationship became more nuanced, as different groups within Islam were distinguished. N. Miladi reported on elements of editorial policy in Muslim media in the UK, including preferred terminology in reference to the 'war on terror'. Framing issues also appeared in a wider context. O. Hafez asked why terrorism was associated with religion when it was clear that its causes were multiple. G. Kent's paper on the Arab language media coverage of the trial of Saddam Hussein both analysed the way the trial was framed in Arab language accounts but also referred to the wider context, which determined the significance of the trial: war crimes trials inevitably erode state sovereignty and there is a widespread supposition of guilt from the outset. This "structural bias" in the situation has lead to Arabic media speculation about the 'real meaning' of the trial and a frame in which its justice is questioned.
Theme 2: Muslim media use. Various papers spoke of the ways in which Muslim communities use media - especially diasporic communities - and more generally of elements of media development among Muslim communities. A frequent theme was the extent to which Muslim media offered an alternative perspective on events to mainstream media and the extent to which this was valued among Islamic communities. In a related matter, the question was repeatedly as to whether Muslim media in the West addressed only their own communities or sought to address the host, national community as well. S. Ahmed reported on ways in which UK Muslim media have reported 9/11 and subsequent relevant events, in relationship to both editorial perceptions of their audiences and to audience uses of these media; central to the argument was the assertion of an identity that was specifically Islamic, and audiences stated that they sought out Islamic media because they offered a perspective that was distinct from mainstream UK media. S. Hamid described recent developments in UK Muslim media and ascribed their impact, at least in part, to networking among audiences. J. Anderson reported on the use of new media among Islamic communities, both by those who place material ion the net and those who consume it - a distinction which anyway is very blurred by the nature of interactive media. He was concerned in particular to assess the extent to which such media use eroded traditional conceptions of 'community authority'. D.Eickelman addressed the same issues but primarily from the point of view of the content of web material and the way in which the modality of circulation within the web, and between the web and mainstream media, impacted upon the sense of the public sphere in the Islamic world. N. Miladi addressed the issue of the editorial policy of Muslim UK media towards UK foreign policy, stressing the value of an alternative perspective from the point of view of media-audience relationships. G. Gervasio addressed the editorial policy of Moroccan media towards certain central 'taboo' issues in Moroccan public life which are related to the perceived legitimacy of the monarchy in an Islamic country; small shifts in coverage were visible, which were tokens of larger shifts within the politicla class. A. Sharif reported on developments in Pakistani media driven by the population's religious affiliation, and in particular the influx of money into Islamic organisations from the West at the time that the mujahideen were seen as a pro-Western force. This has led to a rapid growth of Islamic media and a new style of militant journalism. Such publications insist on the clash of secular/Islamic ideologies, lionise Osama bin Laden, label the Afghan war a 'crusade' and regularly carry profiles of 'martyrs' and interviews with surviving family members.
Theme 3 - Muslim perceptions of the world. Another frequent theme was the nature of Muslim perceptions of the world, and especially of the role of recent events in the construction of their perceptions. Naturally, this theme overlaps with the media framing of events; however, several speakers addressed the issue primarily in terms of public opinion considered as something independent of media frames. M. Elashiry addressed the issue of sensitivity to the language used in the documentation developed by Islamic political groups, especially in so far as it revealed attitudes towards the authority of religious texts and figures, as opposed to the authority of seculars reason. N. Marzouki considered the war in which events since 9/11 have led French and American Muslim organisations to develop a political line which allows them to assert loyalty to the host nation and legitimacy within their own communities. She also addressed the extent to which this led to divisions within the diasporic communities in question, and questioned the validity of 'dialogue' as a tactic for integrating Muslims into the host nation, as it might lead to an 'us/them' perception of inter-communal relations and to an emphasis on the role of opinion leaders in relation to the host state which risked reducing their own legitimacy within their communities. S. Kazmi addressed the issue of how Muslims should respond to the challenge of radicalised Islam, including the strategy of terror. He posed the question of understanding why some Muslims seem to be ore prone to radicalisation than others. A. Gorgun analysed the development of anti-Americanism in Turkey as a response to events since the first Gulf War, despite initial sympathy for the USA in the wake of 9/11. It is the light of this developing sentiment in public opinion that Turkish media treatment of issues such as the Iraq War should be understood. M. Guida analysed the role of conspiracy theories in Turkish popular culture, and the way in which they are used in Islamist media: such theories inflect their coverage of recent events. Theme 4 - religion and identity. Running thorough many papers and surfacing in discussion was the theme of the role of religion in establishing identity in Muslim communities. S. Ahmed commented on the extent to which UK Muslims insisted on a specifically Islamic - as opposed to ethnic - dimension to their collective identity; however, S. Hamid saw the identity of UK Muslim groups as composed of a mixture of ethnicity and religious affiliation. The central concern of N. Marzouki's paper was the extent to which commitment to Islam and the nature of diasporas created difficulties for political groups in France and the USA. She pointed out that the relationship to the host nation effectively precluded the creation of the transnational ummah . More generally, the role of Islam in establishing the legitimacy of authority was a tread that surfaced at many points in both papers and discussions - for example, in J. Anderson's and D. Eickelman's discussions of the relationship between the modalities of interactive communication and the nature of authority in Islamic communities. Organisation and Contact. www.bris.ac.uk/politics/grc/muslimmedia . The conference organiser was Dr Jutta Weldes, and she can be contacted at: Jutta.Weldes@bris.ac.uk. |
