Muslims in International Media

View of Boston as we drove into the city.

It has been such a busy week!

Eight students from the Mercyhurst Communication Department and I traveled to Boston early Thursday morning and returned this evening.

All nine of us were selected to present our research at the Eastern Communication Association (ECA)'s 103rd Annual Conference.

Kelly, Lindsey and I were selected to present our research involving the portrayal of Muslims in international media.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, we have researched how Muslims are framed for more than a year and a half.

We looked at how news and opinion articles from NPR, Fox, CNN, New York Times, Al Jazeera and BBC frame Muslims and America together.

We collected articles from September 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011.  This gave us a little over a year's worth of articles to analyze

We stored the articles into respective documents and then ran them through CATPAC, which is a content analysis software. This program gave us the 40 most unique and frequently occurring words and graphed which of those words showed up together. From here, we went back into the articles and analyzed the context of the words.

Standing with our poster before the presentation.

Some of the results we found were surprising.  Opinion articles were pretty much what we expected, but news articles threw us for a loop.

The two most surprising results were from Fox and CNN.

Fox articles that were strictly news framed Muslims in a way that made them human, rather than depict them as the enemy or terrorists.  Since Fox is stereotypically a very conservative and "right" network, this is not what we expected.

On the other hand, CNN -- which is seen as neutral or sometimes a liberal network -- framed Muslims in a negative way.

Many people at the conference who told us they get a lot of their news from CNN were surprised by this. They discussed with us how we must be aware about what we are reading and not follow the media's information blindly.  All of us must stand on our own two feet and do a little extra digging to really know what is going on in the world.

We also met faculty member Nick Bowman, Ph.D., from West Virginia University who told us he would love it if we could read over his research about how the death of Osama bin Laden was framed in newspapers. He explained that is it always good to find others doing the same types of research and having them look over your own, especially if the findings support each other's research.

I will definitely be looking at his blog and looking into his research on Osama bin Laden's death.

If you'd like to know more about our research on Muslims in international media, feel free to contact me and I will send you a copy of the paper (graphs and all, it's kind of fun to look at).

Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have about the research as well. Do you have any thoughts or possibly disagree?

The Muslims Are Coming!

The Muslims Are Coming! is a documentary based on a tour of Muslim-American comedians battling stereotypes of Muslims and Islamophobia with jokes.

Comedians Negin Farsad, Dean Obeidallah, Maysoon Zayid, and Omar Elba travelled across the Southeastern United States and eventually branched out West.

They used stand-up comedy as the primary tool of the tour, but also used means such as 'Ask a Muslim' and 'Name that Religion'.

The documentary also includes commentary from figures such as Jon Stewart, Lewis Black, Rachel Maddow and Soledad O'Brien.

The Washington Post has an interactive website for this that lets you learn a little bit about the comedians, some comedy, and their thoughts on the subject on Islamophobia.

After watching them do 'Name that Religion' on The Washington Post's website, I found it interesting to see what some people thought was from the Quran ended up being from the New Testament or the Torah.

The film will be released soon. Unfortunately I found no release date, but it should be later this year, inshallah (God willing)!

This news video from CNN gives a great look at the project.

Check out the film's website and maybe even request to bring the film to a city near you

A Purpose and Some Research

Marhaba! (Hello)

I've run into a lot of questions about why I study the Middle East.

Kelly, Lindsay and Me (right to left) outside one of the Smithsonian
Institutes when we were in Washington D.C. to present research.

This became a serious interest of mine in my freshman year at Mercyhurst.

Basically, I am good at picking up languages so I wanted to put that to good use with a more difficult language. I also hate the generalizations made about Muslims and the Middle East, so what better way to work against the stereotypes than to immerse myself in this subject.

I created a minor, took classes, found Arab stores in Erie, and practice Arabic with friends. I try to involve this in everything I do.

I am always sharing my experiences with friends and inviting them to join me at the market, get dinner, do henna, etc. Sharing these opportunities with others and starting the conversation helps foster understanding among cultures.

An additional project I do involving the Middle East is my research.  I have spent more than a year and a half researching the portrayal of Muslims in the media and presenting my findings.

My friends Lindsay, Kelly and I began this research together.  We analyzed news from American news sources and eventually grew the project into an analysis of Muslims in international media sources.

We presented our information at the Eastern Communication Association's (ECA) annual conference and at the University at Buffalo.  Our first study was also published in the University of Alabama at Birmingham's online journal Human Communication.

We will be attending ECA's conference again this year in Boston, MA.

The research definitely showed some interesting results and we have come a long way. If you want to know more, feel free to ask questions about the results or the topic in general.

I hope this answers some questions for you and you learned a little bit about myself as well.

Ma-Salaama! (Goodbye)

We are all Shaima Alawadi

I am a staff writer and editor-in-training for my university's newspaper, The Merciad.

I wanted to share a compelling opinion article from our most recent issue.  It is titled We are all Shaima Alawadi. It does not simply discuss the events in California, but also confronts the pressing issues in regards to Muslims and America.

Personally, I don't think I could have worded the article better myself.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

We are all Shaima Alawadi
By Zainab Javed

Shaima Alawadi was murdered this past week.

The mother of five was brutally beaten with a tire-iron until unconscious, her brain swelling irreversibly. Her 17-year-old daughter discovered her mother near death with a note saying “go back to your country, you terrorist” next to her body.

Her murder hits close to home. When I think of it, I shudder. It could just as easily been my mother or aunt.

They too wear a hijab, a religious head covering, which seems to have become synonymous with “threat” in our society.

This was not an isolated incident.

The harassment and hate crimes against Muslim Americans have been on the rise in a post-9/11 world. What perpetuates this hatred and distrust of Muslim Americans? Why has a wave of Islamophobia swept the country?

The answer is that the rhetoric in the mainstream forces around us varying from media to politicians paints Muslims as foreign threats to domestic security.

Today we are escorted off airplanes because someone feels like we are “suspicious.” The NYPD spies on our communities by sending undercover cops into our mosques and businesses. They were even caught systematically spying on Muslim students on Yale, Rutgers and other college campuses even though these students were not accused of any wrongdoing; students just like you or me.

You can’t blatantly violate civil rights under the context of counter terrorism. When you single out Muslims, you create a narrative where we are the enemy. It builds a state of fear and paranoia, which then descends to the average citizen who is fed stereotypes of Muslims as terrorists.

Islam is not inherently linked with terrorism.

Juan Williams, formerly of NPR, once said, “If I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Tell me, Williams, what is Muslim garb? There are over a billion of us. We transcend across hundreds of cultures. So what exactly does Muslim garb look like? And more importantly, if we wear Muslim “garb,” are we deserving of harassment and death? Did Alawadi deserve to die because of her hijab? No.

Many people seem to forget a very important aspect of the term “Muslim American”—we may be Muslims, but we are also Americans. We are your neighbors, your classmates and your coworkers. We pay our taxes, abide by the laws and participate in our local communities. We love America because it is our home.

I am an immigrant. I moved to the United States when I was three. I could recite the Pledge of Allegiance before I ever learned Pakistan’s national anthem; I even know the Star Spangled Banner in three-part harmony. What I’m trying to say is, I love America and, I’m tired of having to defend my loyalty to this country. This country is my country. No one can tell me to go home when this is my home.

Fareed Zakeria said, “I am an American, not by accident of birth but by choice. I voted with my feet and became an American because I love this country and think it is exceptional.”

In memory of Alawadi and in solidarity with the countless victims of religiously-charged hate crimes, I will be wearing a hijab for the week of March 26-31. If you see me, stop me and ask me some questions about Islam.

Take some time to get to know a Muslim.

The Sisters of Mercy have supported building “genuine trust and understanding between faith traditions in these times of growing political posturing, fear, suspicion and dangerous stereotyping.” Isn’t it time we do the same?

Let’s promote knowledge because this country cannot afford to fall victim to fear and ignorance.

We’re all Americans. We’re in this together, sink or swim. An attack on one American is an attack on all Americans. Alawadi was an American.

Today, we are all Alawadi.

In the News: Muslim Mother Beaten to Death

I came across this headline today:
Iraqi woman beaten in Calif. dies; threat note left at scene

Hate crimes, discrimination, prejudice...they are never acceptable. This should not happen.

If you would like to show your support for those who are victims of those types of behavior, I invite you to take part in International Scarves in Solidarity 2012.

Update: I did my own Facebook stand for this already. I would love to see how many other people will stand up and show the world that they will not accept all of the hate and discrimination. There is too much lately and it needs to stop.

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." -Desmond Tutu

The Zeitoun Foundation

I wanted follow-up my last post with this organization.

If you find the story interesting, or even the injustices that went along with it, you may be interested in The Zeitoun Foundation.

As stated on its website:
"[The Zeitoun Foundation] is dedicated to the continued rebuilding and social advancement of New Orleans and to promote understanding between people of disparate faiths around the world, with a concentration on relations between America and the Muslim world."

Check it out!

Religious Intolerance and Zeitoun

I went to New Orleans at the end of November for a service project.

While we were down there, a member of the reconstruction group we were working with was showing us where Hurricane Katrina affected New Orleans the most.  As we drove in an area close to the Ninth Ward, a friend pointed out a sign for a paint contractor.

Zeitoun was the name on the sign.

She then told me about a book that was about the man who owns the company and recommended I read it.

I recommend the same to you.

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is about the injustices Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his family faced during the events of Hurricane Katrina.

The book chronicles Zeitoun's life as a background for the reader - from his childhood in Syria, to meeting his wife Kathy in New Orleans.

As Hurricane Katrina approaches, Kathy and their children leave the state to find someplace safe to stay while Zeitoun stays behind to take care of their house and client's houses in the community.

Zeitoun then goes missing.

He is judged based upon his religion and ethnicity and ends up getting arrested because he is considered a terrorist - why else would he stay in New Orleans during Katrina after all?

He is treated poorly at each of the locations he is held at.  He cannot contact his family, the guards don't respect their religious needs and sometimes don't eat, they're susceptible to cruel punishments, and even though he is hurt, they will not allow Zeitoun to see a doctor. Just to name a few.

After finding pity in a stranger, Zeitoun is able to get a message to Kathy that he is alive and in jail.  She, in turn, contacts a lawyer and many friends to act as character witnesses in order to free her husband.

The book clearly details the situation a little bit more, but as I read this I was infuriated at the kind of treatment  this family received.  Not only are there the presumptions that Zeitoun must be a terrorist for being Muslim and Syrian, but there is also a theme of discrimination.  Kathy, a Louisianian who converted to Islam from being Baptist, is even judged for her attire.

Discrimination. Racism. Religious intolerance. Prejudice. All of these are very real in American society against Arabs and Muslims.

I don't want to get on a soapbox, but I leave you with this food for thought.

“Every time a crime was committed by a Muslim, that person's faith was mentioned, regardless of its relevance. When a crime is committed by a Christian, do they mention his religion? ... When a crime is committed by a black man, it's mentioned in the first breath: 'An African American man was arrested today...' But what about German Americans? Anglo Americans? A white man robs a convenience store and do we hear he's of Scottish descent? In no other instance is the ancestry mentioned.” -Zeitoun

Think about it.
Would you agree?