(Mis)representing Islam


Book Description

Explores how élite broadsheet newspapers are implicated in the production and reproduction of anti-Muslim racism in Britain.




(Mis)Representing Islam


Book Description

(Mis)Representing Islam explores and illustrates how élite broadsheet newspapers are implicated in the production and reproduction of anti-Muslim racism. The book approaches journalistic discourse as the inseparable combination of ‘social practices’, ‘discursive practices’ and the ‘texts’ themselves from a perspective which fuses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism. This framework enables Richardson to (re)contextualise élite journalism within its professional, political, economic, social and historic settings and present a critical and precise examination of not only the prevalence but also the form and potential effects of anti-Muslim racism. The book analyses the centrality of van Dijk’s ideological square and the significance and utility of stereotypical topoi in representing Islam and Muslims, focusing in particular on the reporting of Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Algeria, Iraq and Britain. This timely book should interest researchers and students of racism, Islam, Journalism and Communication studies, Rhetoric, and (Critical) Discourse Analysis.




Muslims and the News Media


Book Description

This urgently relevant book examines both the role and representations of Muslims in the news media, particularly within a climate of threat, fear and misunderstanding. Written by both leading academic authorities and by Muslim media practitioners, "Muslims and the Media" is designed as a comprehensive and critical textbook and is set in both the British and international contexts. The book clearly establishes the links between context, content, production and audiences thus reflecting the entire cycle of the communication process and revealing the ways in which meaning is produced and reproduced in the news media. Looking closely at the circumstances and politics surrounding the representation of Muslims across a wide range of journalistic genres, at the presence and influence of Muslims in the processes of news production, and the ways in which audiences, both Muslim and non-Muslim, consume this media, the book brings together coherently a wide range of perspectives to provide crucial insights into the representation - and misrepresentation - of Islam and Muslims today. Accessibly written for students and indispensable for practitioners, it will also provide a broader audience with a lively understanding of ever more critical political and media issues.




Brand Islam


Book Description

From food products to fashions and cosmetics to children’s toys, a wide range of commodities today are being marketed as “halal” (permitted, lawful) or “Islamic” to Muslim consumers both in the West and in Muslim-majority nations. However, many of these products are not authentically Islamic or halal, and their producers have not necessarily created them to honor religious practice or sentiment. Instead, most “halal” commodities are profit-driven, and they exploit the rise of a new Islamic economic paradigm, “Brand Islam,” as a clever marketing tool. Brand Islam investigates the rise of this highly lucrative marketing strategy and the resulting growth in consumer loyalty to goods and services identified as Islamic. Faegheh Shirazi explores the reasons why consumers buy Islam-branded products, including conspicuous piety or a longing to identify with a larger Muslim community, especially for those Muslims who live in Western countries, and how this phenomenon is affecting the religious, cultural, and economic lives of Muslim consumers. She demonstrates that Brand Islam has actually enabled a new type of global networking, joining product and service sectors together in a huge conglomerate that some are referring to as the Interland. A timely and original contribution to Muslim cultural studies, Brand Islam reveals how and why the growth of consumerism, global communications, and the Westernization of many Islamic countries are all driving the commercialization of Islam.




Discourse Analysis and Media Attitudes


Book Description

Is the British press prejudiced against Muslims? In what ways can prejudice be explicit or subtle? This book uses a detailed analysis of over 140 million words of newspaper articles on Muslims and Islam, combining corpus linguistics and discourse analysis methods to produce an objective picture of media attitudes. The authors analyse representations around frequently cited topics such as Muslim women who wear the veil and 'hate preachers'. The analysis is self-reflexive and multidisciplinary, incorporating research on journalistic practices, readership patterns and attitude surveys to answer questions which include: what do journalists mean when they use phrases like 'devout Muslim' and how did the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks affect press reporting? This is a stimulating and unique book for those working in fields of discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, while clear explanations of linguistic terminology make it valuable to those in the fields of politics, media studies, journalism and Islamic studies.




Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades)


Book Description

"The courageous Robert Spencer busts myths and tells truths about jihadists that no one else will tell." —MICHELLE MALKIN While many choose to simply blame the West for provoking terrorists, Robert Spencer’s new book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)™ reveals why it is time to ignore political correctness and identify the enemy - if we hope to ever defeat them. In a fast-paced, politically incorrect tour of Islamic teachings and Crusades history, Spencer reveals the roots of Islamic violence and hatred. Spencer refutes the myths popularized by left-wing academics and Islamic apologists who justify their political agendas with contrived historical “facts.” Exposing myth after myth, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)™ tackles Islam’s institutionalized mistreatment of non-Muslims, the stifling effect Islam has on science and free inquiry, the ghastly lure of Islam’s X-rated Paradise for suicide bombers and jihad terrorists, the brutal Islamic conquests of the Christian lands of the Middle East and North Africa, and more. In The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)™, you will learn: How Muhammad did not teach “peace and tolerance”—instead he led armies and ordered the assassination of his enemies Why American Muslim groups and left-wing academics are engaged in a huge cover-up of Islamic doctrine and historyHow today’s jihad terrorists following the Qur’an’s command to make war on Jews and Christians have the same motives and goals as the Muslims who fought the Crusaders Why the Crusades were not acts of unprovoked aggression by Europe against the Islamic world, but a delayed response to centuries of Muslim aggression What must be done today—from reading the Qur’an to reclassifying Muslim organizations—in order to defeat jihad terrorists




European Identity and the Representation of Islam in the Mainstream Press


Book Description

This book combines media studies and linguistics with theories of national and supranational identity to offer an interdisciplinary approach to the study of European identity/ies and news discourses. Taking representations of ‘Islamist terrorism’ and Turkey’s accession to the European Union as case studies, it analyses the discursive construction of supranational European identity through the discursive distinction of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’. Moreover, it compares the media’s representations of the ‘Other’ in different socio-political moments in Europe- from times of European integration (2004-5) to the European dystopia (2015-16) through the discourse analysis of specific Greek, British and French newspapers. This timely work synthesizes classic argumentative approaches and Gramscian thought in the study of media discourses by focusing on the Aristotelian concept of topos and introducing the concept of ‘hegemonic knowledge’. This pioneering work will appeal to scholars across the fields of linguistics, social anthropology, European politics, and media studies.




Disgraced


Book Description

“A continuously engaging, vitally engaged play about thorny questions of identity and religion in the contemporary world, with an accent on the incendiary topic of how radical Islam and the terrorism it inspires have affected the public discourse.” New York Times New York. Today. Corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor is happy, in love, and about to land the biggest career promotion of his life. But beneath the veneer, success has come at a price. When Amir and his artist wife, Emily, host an intimate dinner party at their Upper East Side apartment, what starts out as a friendly conversation soon escalates into something far more damaging. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2013, Disgraced premiered in Chicago before transferring to New York's Lincoln Center in 2012. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by J.T. Rogers.




Religious Education in Malawi and Ghana


Book Description

Religious Education in Malawi and Ghana contributes to the literature on opportunities and complexities of inclusive approaches to Religious Education (RE). It analyses how RE in Malawi and Ghana engages with religious pluralisation and provides a compelling case for the need to re-evaluate current approaches in the conceptualisation, curriculum design and delivery of RE in schools in Malawi and Ghana. The book explains how a pervasive tradition of selection involving exclusion and inclusion of religion in RE leads to misrepresentation, and in turn to misclusion of non-normative religions, where religion is included but marginalized and misrepresented. The book contributes to wider discourse of RE on opportunities as well as complexities of post-confessional approaches, including the need for RE to avoid perpetuating the continued legitimisation of selected religions, and in the process the delegitimization of the religious ‘other’ as a consequence of misrepresentation and misclusion. Inspired by Braten’s methodology for comparative studies in RE, the book draws on two qualitative studies from Malawi and Ghana to highlight the pervasive problems of religious misclusion in RE. This book will be of great interest for academics, scholars and post graduate students in the fields of RE, African education, educational policy, international education and comparative education..




Islam in British media discourses


Book Description

Media reporting on Islam and Muslims commonly relate stories about terrorism, violence, or the lack of integration with western values and society. Yet there is little research into how non-Muslims engage with and are affected by these news reports. Inspired by the overtly negative coverage of Islam and Muslims by the mainstream press and the increase in Islamophobia across Europe, this book explores the influence of these depictions on the thoughts and actions of non-Muslims. Building on extensive fieldwork interviews and focus groups, Laurens de Rooij argues that individuals negotiate media reports to fit their existing outlook on Islam and Muslims. Non-Muslim responses to these reports, de Rooij argues, are not only (re)productions of local and personal contextuality, but are co-dependent and co-productive to the reports themselves.