News
Though Muslims comprise less than 1% of the US population, major news outlets devote significant resources to covering the subject of Islam both outside and within the nation. However, much of the debate either implies or openly suggests that Islam is a religion of terror, with some pundits and even lawmakers concerned about the non-existent threat that sharia law might overtake the United States. The UN condemns the media for “putting out a distorted and indeed hate-filled message treating Muslims as extremists and terrorists.” Examples of this discrimination in the news abound, including but not limited to coverage of Park51 and questions about Barack Obama’s birthplace. News outlets have spent much airtime voicing the concern of pundits against Park51, even when the opinions offered are paranoid or xenophobic. By devoting significant time and attention to inappropriate and outrageous statements made by pundits, the media subtly grants them undeserved legitimacy in the eyes of the viewing public.
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On his program, Glenn Beck stated that not all opposition to the “Ground Zero Mosque” was equivalent to a hatred of Muslims, but then promptly raised questions about the project’s funding. He continued by suggesting that Abdul Rauf may be spreading anti-American messages around the globe on the sole basis that “there are radicalized Muslims” in the world. Similarly, Sarah Palin called Park51 a “stab to the heart” of the American people on Fox News and questioned its purpose, stating that there were over a hundred mosques already in New York City.
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Barack obamaBorn on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu to a white mother and Kenyan father, Barack Hussein Obama was irrefutably an American citizen from the moment of birth. Baptized in the early 1990s by Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, he has remained a Christian to this day. These facts would remain undisputed in the media if not for his race, name, and Kenyan Muslim father. For months, news channels regularly featured “birthers,” or those who claimed that Obama was foreign-born. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, the percentage of Americans convinced that Obama is a Muslim increased from 12% to 16% from 2008 to 2012. These rumors of Obama being a secret Muslim have fueled Islamophobic and
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xenophobic elements of American society, which in turn fuel conspiracy theories about his birthplace. Edward Said wrote in Orientalism, his work on the arbitrary division of the world into the “Occident” (West) and the “Orient” (East), that the Occident is often perceived to be superior to the Orient in every way[1]. For this reason, portraying Obama as being foreign-born would not only delegitimize his presidency in the eyes of birthers but also play into their notions of foreigners as an inferior “other.”
[1] Edward Said, Orientalism, Random House, Vintage Books (1979), p. 49.
[1] Edward Said, Orientalism, Random House, Vintage Books (1979), p. 49.