Islamic Peril: Media and Global Violence

Clint MacNeil teaches history, geography, and world religion at St.
Charles College in Sudbury, Ontario.

The central thesis of this book is that Muslims have been treated
unfairly by the media, portrayed as uncivilized fundamentalist radicals
who are threat to the free world. The problem, as Karim sees it, is that
the media are reluctant to challenge the “dominant discourse” about
Muslims and Islam in general. Myths, stereotypes, and embellishments of
truth are disseminated to the general public.

According to Karim, tensions in the Middle East provided a convenient
scapegoat for journalists as the threat of the Soviet Union waned in the
mid- to late 1980s and 1990s. Stories of “militant,” “radical,”
and “fundamentalist” terrorists replaced stories of conflicting
ideologies and the nuclear arms race. As they attempt to defend their
faith and culture from the encroachment of Western economic and
political dominance, Muslims are portrayed as backward, ignorant, and
resistant to progress.

Karim’s analysis of Muslims and the media glosses over a number of
realities: Salmon Rushdie is the subject of a fatwa; the explosions at
the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were not media inventions;
women’s rights are not recognized in the Muslim world; the Taliban’s
crimes are as immoral as any suicide bombing; beheadings, floggings, and
amputations are commonplace in Saudi Arabia. Islam’s image in the West
may be worse than it should be, but it is not without foundation.