Throughout history, western media, or media in general, has always targeted specific groups or topics that have come to their attention, whether it was the communists thirty years ago, the Jews eighty years ago, or the blacks even before that. Currently, one of these greatly misrepresented themes is Islam. Although the religion is one of the fastest growing in the west, it is displayed by the media with misleading stereotypes and distort which are not part of Islamic belief. Muslims are characterized with words such as "terrorist", "extremist", "Islamist" and "suicide bomber" by the western media, and Islam is depicted with negativity, being identified as a faith of violence and cruelty, which are completely contradictory terms used to describe this peaceful religion. In fact, according to faithrehearsed.wordpress.com, 64% of British population acquire knowledge about Islam from the media, out of which 91% of the coverage produces pessimistic claims, notifying the fact that a large proportion of people are provided with false information.
Many reporters who cover the Muslim world usually possess none or very little knowledge or background on Islamic history, creating numerous costly mistakes, such as the typical misconstruction towards the idea of Jihad as being used as an excuse for carrying out ferocious acts to gain power and control or inflict Islamic teachings upon others. However, in Islam Jihad means “the struggle in the path of God” or “holy war” and there are two types of Jihad. There is the greater Jihad which is the struggle within oneself to gain righteousness and purity in Islam, yet this concept has been corrupted by the media and used by terrorist groups to gain power over others. The second type of Jihad, being the lesser Jihad, is equivalent to the Christian doctrine of Just war. Nonetheless, an important factor usually forgotten is that this type of Jihad only relates to situations where an individual or group is enduring aggression or oppression, therefore it is seen as a rule of self-defense, and self-defense only, as every Muslim should be allowed to defend themselves or their possession. On the other hand, through errors in interpretation the media sees it as an act of aggression, which is the complete opposite of its actual meaning, as Allah dislikes those who cause aggression.
Western Media also argues that women are not provided equal rights within Islam and are, for example, forced to wear a veil. In contrast to this Islam allows women to have the right to be educated as well as participate in political, economic and social activities, creating upwards mobility within their community. They are also authorized the right to inherit property, take charge of their belongings and even vote, something which was discounted in the US until 1919. An example of this can be the fact that the Prophet’s (PBUH) first wife Khadija (May Allah (swt) have mercy on her) was a businesswoman to whom the Prophet was a worker for, yet he never objected to this. The veil is used to help protect women and let them remain in chastity, it is not an obligation, but a choice, and if a woman decides not to wear it, that is between her and Allah. Unfortunately, many cultural beliefs are regarded above Islamic teachings, such as in Saudi Arabia, where it is compulsory for women to wear abbayyas (floor length veils), though this is ignored by the western media, who aim the blame at the Muslim Community as a whole, instead of analyzing specific customs followed by certain countries that ignore the religion’s principles.
Lastly, extremism is a vast topic touched upon by the western media as they centrally focus on a small scale (about 0.1% of all Muslims) of extremists in Islam, disregarding the remaining population and result in naming all Muslims as “extremists”. Individuals like Anjem Choudary are looked upon and disappointingly demote the name of Islam. This ignorance by the media is greatly underlined as Islam strictly prohibits any form of extremism, as the Prophet (PBUH) said "Those persons who go to extremes (in practicing their religion) were cursed (by God)".
Overall, the media creates countless statements or conclusions, most of which are biased or based on incorrect facts, revealing many wrong perceptions about Islam to the public, consisting of, not only the non-Muslim population, but also Muslims who are not greatly aware of the concepts of the faith. Thus we should question the credibility of media along with the various insights and opinions it conveys. In addition to this, as I mentioned previously, Islam is rapidly growing in the western community, and as it progresses, the misunderstandings throughout the region may gradually decrease as a considerable number of people may come to learn about the religion and a more positive approach will be looked upon its true beliefs.
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