Canadian Media and Muslims in History and Today Essay

Introduction

The primary function of the media is to build a common foundation for audiences to interpret news. While examining most of the Canadian news media, one is likely to notice that minorities are either scantily covered or are portrayed in debasing terms. More than 15% of the Canadian population consists of immigrants. Of this, over 50% are minorities. However, the media have resisted this observable fact of diversity (Herding 311-315). Some of the minorities include blacks, Muslims, Aboriginals, Asians, Latinos, Gays/Lesbians, Independents and Non-believers. The substance of this paper is to discuss how Canadian media have portrayed Muslim groups both in history and today.

Background to Islam in Canada

Canadian Muslim population is estimated to be about 600, 000, nearly 2% of the total population. This population has been rising, especially in the new millennium. Most Muslims here were immigrants who came to Canada from Asia as practicing Muslims. However, a number of them practiced other forms of religions, and later on converted to Islam. Immigrant Muslims came to Canada to look for education, better life, jobs, and to run away from religious and political squabbles back at home. For example, most of those from Asia were fleeing Lebanese civil wars in the 1980s. Somali refugee Muslims were fleeing from the Somali war of the 1990s. Other countries that contributed to an influx of Muslims in Canada included Yugoslavia, Iraq, Albania, Yemen and Bangladesh (Canadian Council for Refugees [CCR 1]). Many of the Muslims live in Ontario, although a large population also lives in British Columbia. The Muslim community has existed in Canada for a long time. In 1871, just four years after she got independence, Canada had about 15 Muslims. However, European immigration preferences still kept this population to a deep low until late 1950s. Although they are a minority group, Canadian Muslims have been living a favourable life compared to those in Europe. That is, the Canadian government officially acknowledges the freedom of worship thus delimiting segregation as much as possible (Bakht 13-16).

How Muslims are covered in mainstream media

With the population of Muslims growing day by day, its coverage in the mainstream media continues to adopt negativity. Major world security concerns such as the terrorist attacks on New York and Middle East wars have escalated tensions between the different cultural relations in most western countries (Jafri 4). Thanks to the harmonious way of life due to the modern political and media exchanges, we have now began to experience a certain level of opposition between the immigrants community on the one hand, and the indigenous members of the population, on the other hand, on the basis of their cultural, religious and ethnic differences. In this regard, a string of negative stereotypes against Muslim communities have emerged in the media (Hussein). The media in Canada has been accused of exaggerating its scope of coverage on Muslim torture. The mainstream media in Canada appears to have labeled Muslims as being terrorists, and this has only led to an escalation in the instances of stereotyping that members of the Muslim community are subjected to. Accordingly, the message that seems to be communicated is that Islam as a religion is fraught with acts of violence (CCR 2).

Causes of biasness against Muslims

There has been a feeling that Canadian mainstream media are frequent communicators on issues concerning the Muslim community. However, the coverage is usually inaccurate and imbalanced. Consistently, particular Canadian minorities such as blacks and Muslims continue to be covered in stereotypes. This has been compounded with the tensions that usually exist among people. For instance, the way non-Muslims view Muslim customs such as wearing the hijab as oppressive (Jafri 6). Additionally, external political and social changes in countries deemed to be absolutely Islamic has also contributed to the negative attitude towards Muslims in Canada. Iranian revolution in 1979 and the emergent of Taliban strict laws [Afghanistan] against women have served to show Islam as an unequalled religion (Hooper). Thus, the tensions manifest in the way mainstream media focuses on these regimes. Usually, cultural orientation of media content producers determines how the content is presented to the final consumers. For example, it is argued that the use of narratives, methods of instilling or diverting attention, the centrality of the journalist, the beginning and the end of the news item as well as the symbolic use of images affects the attitude of the audience (Al-Zahrani 72). Katherine Bullock (21) has taken issue with PBS docu-drama presentation titled,’ the death of a Princess’, along with ABC’s production documentary, ‘Saudi Women behind the Veil’ in her doctoral thesis. Through her work, Bullock indicates that whereas ‘the death of a princess’ was delivered based on the opinion that the producer had regarded the western view of Saudi women, the topic in question was not representative, with the result that the docu-drama ended up reflecting the Saudi way of life instead. On the other hand, Bullock opines that ‘the death of a Princess’ touches on the stereotypes about Muslim women, their roles and rights, in comparison with those held by the western culture. Consequently; the ABC documentary was more successful in conveying the message about the Muslim woman because the presenter was not biased.

In most Canadian mainstream media, there is a depiction of various qualities of Islam, for example, Islam is shown as a gender biased religion. Women are depicted as sex objects who are oppressed by their hijabs and their men are portrayed as violent (Gowlett 34). Katty (16) argues that there is a direct relationship between media coverage and Islam in social policy. For example, the linkage of terrorism to Islam often causes expulsion of hijab-wearing Muslim students in Quebec because it (hijab) is viewed as an adversary to democracy. On the contrary, Muslim students who do not walk with their identifiable code of Islam dress like Kanzus or hijabs often go unnoticed (18).

There are common stereotypes against Muslims as portrayed by the media. They include exposure of Muslims as scoundrels, oppressive, and enemies of western culture (Hooper). The western culture observes customs like the forbidding of women to drive in most Islamic countries as a limitation to human freedom. Therefore, the Islamic religion is seen as a foreign dogma in the Canadian society (Bullock 33).

Coverage of the Muslims in North America in general is usually associated with violence. In a study that was carried out by Awan Khurum and his colleagues (2-56), the authors discovered that all the New York Times, ABC News, MacLean Magazine and PBS were more likely to focus on members of the Muslim community whenever someone was suspected of having taken part in a terrorist activity in North America, or being linked to a war in the Middle East. This was perpetuated by cultural imbalances, misinformation about the Islam culture and pro-Israel foundations, reporters’ attitudes towards Muslims and over reliance on skewed sources of information. For the most part, Muslims were not featured on business news. Darren Gowlett’s (27) focus on Canadian dailies shows how historical understanding of Islam has contributed to media stereotypes against Muslims. In Canada [1983-85], coverage of Muslims would be found in foreign news. The media would favour the opinion that Islam has not kept pace with the recent developments in media technology, instead opting to rely on such sources as government agencies, news corporations and the military. This affected the way the news was structured. In Gowlett’s view, 86% of the analyzed newspaper coverage about the Islamic world was sourced from foreign bodies. Slightly above 15% was sourced from Canadian sources. Moreover, most news pieces about Muslims would not be catalogued. The results showed that The Globe and Mail ran less than three stories per day on Islam and 50% of the stories covered violence. The Montreal Gazette ran less than two per issue with about 55% focusing on Muslims in violence and sourced from the Associated Press. With this, it showed that items about Muslims would not be analyzed but reported verbatim from the sources. The Toronto Star had the least content on violence, at about 48% [though still high on average terms]. Most of her stories were on Islamic sharia and pilgrimage but they were still sourced from Associated Press. On the positive side, these dailies would carry features on the Koran, Islamic history and culture (Gowlett 27-28). Further observations by community based organizations showed that Canadian press was biased against Muslims. The Canadian Islamic Congress determined the content of the Toronto Star, The Globe, The Mail, Toronto Sun, Montreal Gazette and Ottawa Citizen. It found that anti-Islam content was galore in the publications and was often an instigator of rifts between Muslims and non-Muslims, thus endangering individual security. Articles would often identify Islam with violence and it involved terminology like ‘Muslim militants, ‘rebels’, ‘insurgents’, ‘militiamen’, ’radical’ or ‘fundamentalist’ (Jafri 11). In six months of monitoring, the Toronto star emerged as the most insensitive paper. Although there was a consistent coverage on Muslims, the reports gave insufficient details on Muslim achievements and the traditions of Canadian Muslims.

Impact of negative coverage

Several reasons have been put forward to explain the persistent biasness against Muslims in the media. Jack Shaheen (72) asserts that media exposure of North American Muslims as rich, barbaric, sexist and aggressive are common stereotypes. They result from poor research on the life of Muslims and lack of understanding by journalists about the Muslim world. Thus, it leads to generalities about Islam as a culture and religion. Shaheen adds that there is usually no dialogue and reporters often sensationalize their coverage. Most TV programs involve opinion from those who claim to be experts in Islam but they are often more biased. As a result, the media banks on what they say, regardless of whether they are right or wrong (Arabview). Canadian mainstream journalists are somewhat intolerant to Muslims in the country. They do not seek their opinion and often conclude that Canadian Muslims are shy in terms of lobbying the media to receive positive coverage (Jafri 14). Historical settings for North American attitudes towards Islam have always linked Muslims with the zeal for their religion and violent life. The media has picked this up and continues to express the attitude in publications (Mortimer 493). Thus, Canadian Muslims find themselves in an environment already negative to their religion.

The misrepresentation of Muslims in the media also comes from lack of interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims, argues Edward Mortimer. Most Canadian majority communities are largely unaware of the need to learn Islam. And because most journalists are non-Muslim, reporters often ignore to note that Muslims are normal people who lead life with similar desires to any other Canadian. Moreover, most mainstream media corporations side with the tendencies of Israel against Palestine [Islamic] (494-495). Thus, this view is copied from the two countries’ conflict and pasted in the Canadian context. The upheld stereotypes on Muslims regarding the conflict in Israel are the same ones that have been used to devalue Muslims in Canada, as they are perceived to also be in support of their fellow Muslims in Israel (Hussein). Thus, external socio-political influence contributes to subjective coverage of Muslims in Canada. In the continuation of historical differences between Christianity and Islam, stereotypes are enhanced by making people fear Islam. Muslims are described as terrorists and fundamentalists as though to encourage a majority of the Canadians to be cautious of Muslim expansion. The media assumes that Islam itself is a violent religion and hence it may one day spill over this tendency against western civilization (Huntington 102). Thus, the media continues the belief that Islam will one day conquer the world. In this regard, the media promotes phobia for Muslims.

The MacLean magazine is notorious for perpetuating hatred against Islam (Khurum et al 1). In most of the articles, Muslims are shown as expansion-oriented. Articles such as ‘the future belongs to Islam’, and ‘Wake up Ostriches, Islam is an expansionary phase’, claim that Muslims are scheming to take over the western world and force people into sharia laws. They envisage that war between Muslims and the western world is imminent. These articles views free worship as practiced in the western world as the cause behind the ability of Muslims to freely move to and fro the western countries. Other articles show that Muslims are people who cannot live with their hosts in peace. ‘Little Mosque that couldn’t’, ‘Twilight Zone of Insanity’ and ‘Clooney isn’t toothing this one’ have served to invoke the reaction of Muslims on a cartoon about Mohamed that was published in Denmark, prompting an argument that such violent protests are the nature of all Muslims. MacLean has also depicted Muslims as being terrorists. ‘The Canadian Spy’ and ‘The Making of a Canadian Terrorist’ posit that many of the Canadian Islamic religious leaders are radicals, and that Muslims have a culture of letting their religious leaders take care of their children. By imparting radicalism into their children, this is seen as a threat to the majority communities in Canada. Moreover, these articles depict Muslims as intolerant to western democracy. Articles also try to use examples from Muslim countries to taint the good image of the entire Muslim community (Khurum et al 26). A case in point here is the articles that have been used to distort the background of the leader of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Seeing that the Muslim Brotherhood is depicted as a movement that is prejudiced against the western culture, some of these articles have used this perceived prejudice as a yardstick with which to assess Islam as an adversary of the western culture.

Many are the times when the media questions the value of religious freedom to Muslims and infers that such freedom allows Muslims to exercise antagonism to Christianity. In addition, the media tries to oppose the efforts to protect minority communities including Muslims and lambastes the government’s motif of accommodating Islam (Khurum et al 2). The impact of biased coverage hence limits Muslim activities and impinges on their self image. Most Muslim women have once or twice doubted their culture owing to the way the media has influenced how the other communities view a Muslim woman. The media usually ignore the fact that sometimes it is the peripheral groups who continue the violence under the mantle of Islam. Sometimes the way terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda use the Koran to terrorize the world has made it sufficient for the media to justify their position (Poole and Richardson 11-12). The mindset of the people has thus been altered by the media to such an extent that when they think of Islam, what comes to mind is an extreme fundamentalist who is ready to take his/her life along with that of others, for the sake of their religion.

Efforts to normalize the situation

Concerning the nature of media coverage in Canada, it would be in order to assert that the position of the mainstream media regarding the coverage of Islamic issues has been one-sided. A majority of the journalists appears to underrate the ability of Muslims to actively lobby for a positive coverage of their faith, and this may have made it difficult for them to improve on the available information regarding Islam. Community based organizations have already begun to strategize on how to involve Muslims in developing good relations with other communities and the media (Jafri 49). Muslim organizations have already begun developing ‘good offices’ with Canadian mainstream media. They have been taking part in monitoring and responding to media coverage in ways that can help to improve this relationship. For instance, a number of programs have been launched to address the needs of Muslims. Saider Kardar produced a documentary, Homegrown, about Muslim communities in Toronto and this helped to identify the problems faced by Muslims in Canada. In 2005 Nawaz created Little Mosque on the Prairie, a series that airs on CBC TV and focuses on the non-existent Muslim town of Mercy (Jafri 66-68).

Generally, the mainstream media uses specific descriptions when covering minority groups. Towards the Muslims, journalist’s attitudes shape the way they report about them. Most reporters have limited knowledge on Islam and have a difficult time distinguishing between Islamic religion and Muslim culture (Poole and Richardson 13). As a result, persistent stereotyping is maintained in the mainstream media. Moreover, the source of news is often immensely found in foreign bodies who contribute in the provision of biases news that makes it difficult for local journalists to adjust through analysis. In most cases, minimal and biased coverage of Canadian Muslims has led this minority community to feel as if they are unwanted in Canada. It is necessary to raise the image of Muslims in Canadian mainstream media, and this can be enhanced by the Muslims themselves. It may involve their positive coverage as well as striving to improve relations with other Canadians. Canadian Muslims need to identify journalism as a profession and join it to enhance positive coverage. In addition, there is a need to set aside Muslim programs in the mainstream media as a way of encouraging the participation of Muslims. It is also important that journalists approach their profession with objectivity when gathering, reviewing and disseminating information. This way, the media in Canada can be assured of gaining the credibility of the various communities, including Islam.

References

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