Episode 9

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Published on:

22nd Nov 2024

Islamophobia in the Media

Suchitra, Bhakti, and Madhuri embark on a detailed breakdown of Islamophobia, dissecting its historical roots, modern manifestations, and the critical role the media plays in perpetuating anti-Muslim sentiment. They examine how Islamophobia has evolved from colonial narratives into a sophisticated mechanism of systemic hatred, embedded in global power structures. The episode traces the etymology and history of the term “Islamophobia,” highlighting how it fails to capture the full extent of the deliberate dehumanization faced by Muslims worldwide. The hosts delve into the media’s complicity in spreading stereotypes, from conflating Muslim identities with terrorism to sensationalized portrayals of Muslim women as both oppressed and in need of saving. The discussion also emphasizes the intersectionality of Islamophobia, illustrating how it overlaps with racism, sexism, casteism, and imperialism to create a multi-layered system of discrimination. The hosts describe the ways in which Islamophobia is normalized in diverse contexts – from the United States’ post-9/11 policies to France’s secularism debates and India’s Hindu nationalist agenda.

Keywords: Islamophobia, media, terrorism, pop culture, politics, education, activism, Muslim communities, representation, stereotypes

Key Takeaways: 

  • Islamophobia has been prevalent for centuries, especially intensified by recent events in Palestine. 
  • The definition of Islamophobia is often misunderstood, leading to a lack of awareness about its manifestations. What is Islamophobia? What is its definition, the etymology, and its historical and cultural evolution?
  • The term “Islamophobia” can seem too mild and does not capture its pernicious and violent effects. 
  • Media plays a significant role in shaping negative perceptions of Muslims and Islam, and structures its narratives around the term “phobia” and the deliberate, systemic hatred it represents.
  • Terrorism is often misrepresented in the media, focusing on non-state actors while ignoring state-sponsored violence. Doing so, it conflates the identity of terrorism with the identity of Islam. 
  • Pop culture contributes to the normalization of Islamophobic narratives through films and television, such as the TV show Homeland and movies like Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. 
  • Media and political discourse often uses the narrative of saving Muslim women to justify military interventions.
  • Islamophobia is not just a Western issue; it has global implications, affecting Muslim communities worldwide. Local political narratives feed into the global depiction of Islam and anti-Muslim hate.
  • Education about Islamophobia and “unlearning” these coded messages is crucial, however, the effort required starts from the personal and familial levels.
  • Activism and organizing against Islamophobia are essential for creating change.

Hosted by: Suchitra Vijayan, Bhakti Shringarpure, and Madhuri Sastry

A podcast by The Polis Project

References:

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About the Podcast

It's Not You, It's The Media
Resist media gaslighting
It's Not You, It's The Media! unpacks the ways that the media manipulates narratives and makes you question your reality. You're being gaslighted. Suchitra Vijayan, Bhakti Shringarpure and Madhuri Sastry eviscerate the propaganda, set the record straight and offer moral clarity.

Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer and activist. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Polis Project. For her first book, The Midnight's Border: A People's History of India, Suchitra traveled across the 9000-mile Indian border. A barrister by training, she previously worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before co-founding the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, which gives legal aid to Iraqi refugees. She is the co-author of How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners (2023) which offers a lens into today's India through the lived experiences of political prisoners.

Bhakti Shringarpure is a writer and editor. She is the co-founder of Warscapes magazine which transitioned into the Radical Books Collective, a multi-faceted community building project that creates an alternative, inclusive and non-commercial approach to books and reading. Bhakti is the author of Cold War Assemblages: Decolonization to Digital (2019) and editor of Literary Sudans: An Anthology of Literature from Sudan and South Sudan (2017), Imagine Africa (2017) Mediterranean: Migrant Crossings (2018) and most recently, Insurgent Feminisms: Writing War (2023).

Madhuri Sastry is a former lawyer, specializing in international and human rights law. She was the publisher of Guernica Magazine. Her political writing, cultural criticism, interviews and essays have appeared in several publications including The Nation, Guernica, Slate, Bitch and New York Magazine. She is on the editorial board at the Polis Project.