Monthly Compndium
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0 Centre for Research on Islam and Global Media (CRIGM) Department of Media and Communication Studies Faculty of Social Sciences International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI), Sector H-10, Islamabad, Pakistan. [email protected] For Contact: +92-51-9019743, +92-51-9019520 ISSN: 2520-3215 Executive Editor: Professor Dr. Fazal Rahim Khan Qasuria Director Centre for Research on Islam and Global Media (CRIGM) Department of Media and Communication Studies Faculty of Social Sciences International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI), Sector H-10, Islamabad, Pakistan. For Contact: +92-51-9019743, [email protected] Email: [email protected] Editor: Professor Dr. Zafar Iqbal Baloch Chairman, Department of Media and Communication Studies Faculty of Social Sciences International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI), Sector H-10, Islamabad, Pakistan. For Contact: +92-51-9019743, +92-51-9019520 [email protected] Email: [email protected] Centre for Research on Islam and Global Media (CRIGM), Team: Advisory Board Hassan Shahzad Dr. Shabbir Hussain Member of Editorial Commettee, CRIGM Assistant Professor, DMCS Yasar Arafat Syed Inaam ur Rehman Research Associate, CRIGM Assistant Professor, DMCS Qamar Abbas Rooh-ul-Amin Khan Research Associate, CRIGM Assistant Professor, DMCS Abid Zafar Muhammad Atif Shahzad Rsearch Associate & Social Media Promoter, CRIGM Lecturer, DMCS Nauman Riaz Sial Muhammad Junaid Ghauri Research Associate & Designer, CRIGM Lecturer, DMCS Waqar Ahmed Research Associate, CRIGM Tahir Mehmood Malik Co-ordinator, CRIGM Printed by IRI Press, Faisal Mosque Building, Old Campus, International Islamic University Islamabad-Pakistan. 15th March 2017 1 Monthly Media Watch Islam and Muslims in the Global Media February 2017 Centre for Research on Islam and Global Media (CRIGM) Department of Media and Communication Studies International Islamic University Islamabad-Pakistan 2 Table of Contents Page No. 1. About the compendium 4 2. Editorial 5 3. Introduction 7 4. How to read it 9 5. Methodology of Data Collection 10 6. Summary Analysis of the US Print Media Contents Against 11 Islam and Muslims (February 2007) 7. Summary Analysis of the European Media Contents Against 12 Islam and Muslims (February 2017) 8. Highlights of Negative Contents from Western Media 13 (February 2017) 9. United States: News Stories Published in United States & 31 North American Print Media Containing Islamophobic Contents 10. Europe: News Stories Published in European Print Media 181 Containing Islamophobic Contents 11. Australia: News Stories Published in Austalian Print 216 Media Containing Islamophobic Contents 3 About the Compendium This is a monthly compendium of news reports and judgement pieces published in the Western media during February 2017 on issues related to Islam and Muslims. The Western media is generally found to be painting Islam and Muslims as a global threat and danger for the world peace. It has launched an unethical smear campaign against Islam and Muslims, which is becoming intense by the day and from the standpoint of the Western media audience such an unfair portrayal of Islam is likely to be highly Islamophobic and conflictual. To monitor and catalogue the ever-increasing frequency of the Western media’s negative packaging of Islam and Muslims, the Centre for Research on Islam and Global Media (CRIGM) collects within two covers the news stories and leading articles carried in the Western press every month. The articles are culled based on the known indicators of Islamophobia. and found abundant negative contents, highlighted, and published them in a bound form. CRIGM is not only observing western media on issues concerning Islam and Muslim societies but has an eye out for the entire array of the Western media including the electronic, broadcast, online and the social media as well. Shortly, we shall start publishing separate medium-specific reports as well. 4 Editorial He may rightly be called the Dutch Trump but is not so lucky. The name is Geert Wilders, wearing dyed blonde hair. His Party for Freedom (PVV) followed Trump even designing their election slogan as “The Netherlands Ours Again”. Similarly, he succeeded in setting off ripples through international media due to his Islamophobic rhetoric. He attracted attention globally in a way that is too much for a small country like the Netherlands to cope with. Many an eyebrow was raised when he said he wants all Islamic centers and places of worship out of the Netherlands. He then went on to say that he wants Muslims’ holy book Quran banned. Filling the shoes of Trump, Wilders arranged all the elements for being news worthy – controversy, conflict and clash. Nonetheless, he could not become Trump of the Netherlands. Can we then conclude that Wilders defeat manifests a defeat for Islamophobia in Europe? To answer this question for an international audience is neither simple, nor generic. At global level, things are not as they look. During American election, the conclusion that Trump is ugly face of the US was had by international audience because the international media, mostly based in the US, was painting this image. The pollsters were saying so, backed by big files of data they collected from the electorate. But media and society experts were of the opinion that international media does not carry the vibes of American society. Prof Dennis Davis was of the opinion at that time that social media is a better scale to measure American mode, which was in favor of Trump. Experts of American society agreed that the people were fed up with lengthy wars that the establishment of their country was waging all over the world and they perceived that all these wars are heavy on their pocket. American supremacist culture was the engine for success of Trump as most Americans saw him as somebody challenging the mighty establishment. Above all, American society is among the most cross-cultural societies of the world, dominated by white people, who Trump did his best to woo. Compare it with the Netherlands and we find no analogy between Trump and Wilders. Local Dutch media did not overstate Wilder’s position for the elections as did the international media. Before and during the elections, talk of a coalition government was getting thick. Intense reaction from Turkey to denial to its foreign minister for holding a political gathering by the Dutch government on account of security did not but sparked a flash of nationalism among the electorate. Wilders had no valid justification to seek a change other than the scaremongering he tried his best to do. Moreover, Muslim population in the Netherland has a history of peaceful coexistence; therefore, people did not buy Wilders’ rhetoric. Elections are around the corner in France in April before Germany goes to polls in September this year. Both Germany and France have different dimensions and vibrant Muslim populations. Both have been freshly bruised by terrorists brandishing Islam as their religion. After Brexit, both are facing tough choices to make so that their economies continue running. Both have populist parties striking harder than ever at the core of society. Jean Comaroff concludes in his article Populism and Late Liberalism: A Special Affinity? that though populism is a necessary ingredient for movements for change but such a change is short-lived. 5 The European academicia has issued cautions against the rising tide of populism, be-all and end-all of which is Islamophobia, to their societies that need to understand that they cannot live in bunkers in this age of cyber activism. True, Wilders defeat in Dutch elections is a good sign Europe still has a long way to go meeting the targets of high human values it set itself. 6 Introduction Department of Media and Communication Studies at International Islamic University, Islamabad has already magnificently launched the monthly round up ‘Islam and Muslims in Global Media’ containing western news media contents with negative slant towards Islam and Muslims, covering November and December 2016 edition & January 2017 edition. Muslims and Non-Muslims across the world applaud it very much and demanding dissertation for research purposes. Centre for Research on Islam and Global Media (CRIGM) tried to hunt the real triggering point of raising Islamophobia in the west, the most significant aspect found was the elected US President Trump’s hateful, xenophobic and chauvinistic media campaign. Media helped Trump to spread anxiety among the minorities in general and in American Muslims specifically. Several racial and hate attempts were reported on Muslims because of hateful, xenophobic and chauvinistic election campaign. President Donald Trump legitimated hate against the Muslims and providing patronage to the bigotries against Muslims. Media accelerated oppression on Muslims and left them feel suffocated. It was not public hysteria but somehow media’s kindled fire. This compendium of February 2017 in hand consists of the media discourses circulated across the world right after President Donald Trump’s revised edition of an executive order largely fulfilling the ban on seven Muslim countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) entering the United States. Muslims outside the United States grappling ban and inside the United States are under tentative groping by the newly formed US government. Taking advantage of the negative wave against Muslims, anit-Islam and Muslim Prestidigitators have come on the stage and bullying Muslims out as Islamic Center received emailed threats warning Muslims, to "run or die. Holding similar hateful messages flyers are being distributed in various collages and Universities. Provocation by wall chalking is common in hostels and other public places in west, to threat the Muslims. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit that tracks hate groups and extremists, there were 917 such groups nationwide in 2016, up from 784 in 2014 but still shy of the all-time peak in 2011 of 1,018. The number of anti-Muslim hate groups nearly tripled between 2015 and 2016.