Muslims have been marginalized and are no longer able to just focus on their faith.
As a women, an individual, a media observer and most importantly as a person who identifies with my religion I find myself to be against the biased representation and the consistent prejudice against Islam that occurs in the media. The one sided and grotesque method on reports on major news networks has made me revolt against the predominant part media. The unfair and unjust way Islam is portrayed and how Islamophobia has reached to the current worldwide state is a direct result of media making. The unfortunate part is that with much of the public unaware of the actual truth of Islam what has resulted is a barbarabic theme that is associated with being a Muslim.
Muslims are expected to have thicker skin.
I do not condone any form of extremism in any form whatsoever. No form of violence is the answer to conveying any message. But when atrocious acts are committed by individuals who claim to do it in the name of Islam the media is the first to jump on the bandwagon and label these terrorist as Muslims and give news coverage in relation to their religion not the individual. On the contrary when other religious backgrounds who commit inexcusable crimes will not get a dimes worth of news coverage and the crime will be linked to the person not the religion. In a recent attack, two men, who identified as Muslim claimed to slaughter the creators of Charlie Hebdo in the defense of the religion. These two men who had no justification whatsoever to gun down these journalists but somehow in a matter of hours it became the representation of a non violent religion. Either you are a terrorist against free speech or you're a patriot. While in the same month “Christian extremists” murdered several hundred people in Central African Republic and it failed to get barely any airtime.
Media does not fit into my life, media is the fly swatter and I am the fly. It twists and contorts my identity and chooses to do what they will to fit the political agenda at no cost to those affected. To wish I was a more eloquent of a writer to express the depth of this dire situation is an understatement. How interconnected our perception to what the media portrays is how we as individuals perceive and make our judgments. The media needs to portray theses criminals as criminals... not as a religion. The violent minority shouldn't overshadow the majority who do good in the name of Islam. Because of my stance and frustration with media I keep a distant relationship with it. However to say I am celibate from it would be a lie. I use social media, share posts that I feel shows a better understanding and conveys the unequal representations. I attend protests for Gaza and I post it on instagram, I do not watch any news networks or rely on the media for my current events but I try my best to stay informed to have a general up to date knowledge. I post pictures of my childs development, I go to the movies every now and then, I share adorable cat images, in a sense I am still a media consumer...just an extremely cautious one.
Below are some amazing articles that I really identified with and immediately felt relieved that I was not alone in my experience.
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