Islamic Peril: Media and Global Violence

The Virtual Killing of Muslims: Digital War Games, Islamophobia, and the Global War on Terror

“…US cultural industries have played a significant role in making Islamophobia popular by producing and selling a wide range of cultural products-TV shows, Hollywood films, and news stories-that convey misleading stereotypes of Muslims (Altsultany 2012;Bakali 2016b;Guterman 2013;Hussain 2010;Kamalipour 1995;Karim 2000;Kozlovic 2009;Kumar 2012;Kundnani 2015;Morey and Yaqin 2011;Said 1981;Shaheen 2008Shaheen , 2014. One stereotype is the Muslim as Arab (and the Arab as Muslim), as the cultural industries sometimes frame all Muslims as Arabs, and all Arabs as Muslims.…”

“…On the whole, Muslims reject those who commit violence in the name of their faith, but media culture has frequently depicted Muslims as violent "Islamic extremists" who are intolerant of others and hateful towards Jews and Christians. Most of the 1.8 billion Muslims on the planet are not violently anti-American, and Muslim Americans are in no way sympathetic to terrorism, yet, the cultural industries' fifth stereotype is the anti-American Muslim who rejects the US democratic capitalist way of life and plots to harm or kill Americans (Altsultany 2012;Bakali 2016b;Guterman 2013;Hussain 2010;Kamalipour 1995;Karim 2000;Kozlovic 2009;Kumar 2012;Kundnani 2015;Morey and Yaqin 2011;Said 1981;Shaheen 2008Shaheen , 2014.…”

Terrorist in the Eyes of Some: An Examination of the Quebec City Mosque Shooting and the Christchurch Shootings

“…The designation is significant because political leaders and the judiciary represent terrorism as posing a uniquely existential threat to Canada, rationalizing an exceptionally pre-emptive and punitive response by security agencies and law enforcement (Kanji, 2018). Since media also contribute to the perceived level of threat through the frequency of reporting on and framing terrorism, it becomes imperative to understand the pattern of framing that Canadian media has employed (Karim, 2003). Therefore, this chapter will explore existing journalism and communication literature on framing theory and explain its relevance to the thesis project.…”

“…Compared to the more amorphous movements of right-wing extremism, these groups could be compartmentalized as a distinct set of actors causing 56 of the 58 terrorism charges laid in Canada against individuals were once who were inspired by al-Qaeda or Daesh (West, 2020, as quoted in Nash, 2021, p. 4). The "terrorist" label has therefore been readily applied to violent incidents involving Muslims or those linked to what has been referred to as "Islamic extremism" (Nash, 2021;Karim, 2003;Kanji, 2018, Pennington, 2018.…”

“…Considering Entman's (2003) cascading activation model, this "Muslimization" of terrorism frame gets passed down onto media through dominant frames from the government and judiciary. Karim (2003) suggests journalists couch their reporting in narratives that adhere to dominant societal discourses through ritualized media operations. Karim draws on David Chaney's three forms of ritualized operations: (1) rituals which are to be reported; (2) there are ways of reporting which are themselves rituals; and (3) the medium itself maybe be a ritual or collective ceremony.…”