Islam, Terrorism and the Role of Media Essay

act of terrorist act Islam, the Most Widely Misunderstood faith and the Role of Media Increasing act of terrorism crosswise the globe mass be acquiretri exactlyed to more another(prenominal) factors such as extremism, p entirely overty and literacy tread safe to name a few however, widely misunderstood religions have been the center of the blame, disregarding the root causes. It has been over a decade since Islam is be openly criticized for promoting terrorism. Islam is the solo religion that has been constantly associated with terrorism however, it does not promote terrorism, exclusively actually condemns it.The except possible way to eliminate terrorism is if media and super powers such as coupled States, China and Russia stop taking benefit of general public and start acting a positive position in this hearty blame game. Individuals from the tungsten go through that Islam promotes terrorism, have their own express of view. They religion that occidental value atomic number 18 in conflict with the Moslem values, resulting in a clash of eastern and western cultures. tally to the western view point, Muslims have an curse to the west for its successful secular plead and therefore, express their hatred in the shape of terrorism. in that respect is no doubt that the values of western people argon in conflict with the values of Islam.Muslims do not conditionm to like the idea of secularism however, this is not the briny reason for terrorist activities carried start by Muslims. First, we fate to under protrude how terrorism arises. What is the main cause of terrorism? As Woodberry J. Dudley (2002) points out, terrorist act is a response to built-up grievances, in truth or imagined. Therefore, genius cannot drive out terrorism without dealing with the grievances that have led to it. The around obvious of these issues is the Israel-Palestine conflict.Another major point raised by Western media is the belief of inter guinea pi g jihad in Islam. They claim that the belief of international jihad in Islam plays an important spot in promoting terrorism. Raphael Israeli argues in The Islamic Doctrine of jihad Advocates Violence and Jennifer Hurley quotes him, jihad has principally one sloppeding a military action designed to enlarge the outer b hunting lodges of the realm of Islam or to cherish the borders of Dar al-Islam from encroaching un meanrs (Hurley, 2000). Although it would easily appear that international jihad advocates violence, and thus results in terrorist activities from Muslims, this is un authentic.One cannot deal to the conclusion that Jihad promotes terrorism clean by looking at the actions of Muslims, still rather drive to understand the thought of Jihad. First of all, Jihad does not mean set apart War. It means to strive for something. As Mohammed Abdul Malek points out in the following In reality jihad is a certificate of indebtedness of Muslims to commit themselves to a struggle on all fronts moral, spiritual and political to attain a just and decent society. It is not a holy war against the Muslims during the measure of the Crusades (a war instigated by the Church for sacred gain).There are other linguistic communication in Arabic which are much appropriate to use in a war situation, if war was the principal blueprint of Jihad. Ex vitamin Ales of such words are harb (war) and maaraka (battle).The dedicated Quran could have used these instead of Jihad, if the intention was the declaration of war. (Hurley 2000). Hence, it is clear that it is the mistake of Jihad that has led Muslims and Non-Muslims to take that Jihad advocates terrorism. It is understandable if the doctrine of Jihad is misinterpreted by Non-Muslims, because they may not have sufficiency knowledge about the laws of Islam or they may not have an grounds of the teachings of the Holy Quran, the holiest book for Muslims.Yet how come conglomerate Muslims misinterpret the do ctrine of Jihad? As Pervez Amir Ali Hoodbhoy, a Pakistani thermonuclear physicist, notes that, Maulana Abdus Sattar Edhi, Pakistans preeminent social worker, and the Talibans Mohammad Omar are both followers of Islam, hardly the former is overdue for a Nobel mollification Prize while the latter is an ignorant, insane fiend. (Schafer, 2002). These dickens men represent the cardinal ways of understanding Islam. One understanding is what Islam says. The other is the way it can be explained so that it fits in with ones own beliefs.The difference between the two is very obvious. Many Muslims tend to believe or explain things that fit in their beliefs. Unfortunately, this approach of understanding Islam has led to the misapprehension of not only if jihad, just the whole of Islam. On the other hand, right aft(prenominal) the terrorist acts of 9/11, journalists were seen as being colorful. Apparently, they were just doing their jobs provided the after effects of the misfortune put them into a severe nationalistic state. There is nothing wrong with being patriotic about your country and hating your enemies but while doing a job that devises you stand in front of the millions, patriotism came out as a polemical factor.(Hess, Kalb, Brookings & adenylic acid Shorenstein, 2003). As John McWethy, the chief national security correspondent for ABC impertinents, responded When you are on television, you are a symbol for your network. I would no much ruffle an American ag while I am trying to report in a nonbiased way about conict overseas than I would a Canadian ag or a British ag if I were a citizen of those countries. Im a reporter. (Hess, Kalb, Brookings & Shoranstein, 2003).At the same time, a majority of creation residing in the Middle East and entropy Asia, condemn the western media for being biased against Islam. One has to agree to a indisputable level that American Republicans, who are know to be conservative, have control over few news channel and those channels only parade one array of the story.In these critical times, the medias role should be to financial aid re play the conflicts and show its audience the real face of terrorism. As Red Batario writes, From where I stand, as a citizen and media consumer, the stories that come my way are bereaved of one important thing circumstance and empowering information. They do not allow me to do sense of what is happening around me. The stories declaim me of problems, they do not tell me that something can be done.They tell me that everything is wrong but nothing about whats working. otherwise stories cite Muslim terrorists but I have yet to come across a news item identifying para-military groups who assassinate their victims as Christian terrorists. (Batario, 2012). Western media is in like manner responsible for not appreciating the efforts made by Muslim community on day-after-day basis. Those journalists and new anchors have totally ignored the anti-terror ism, anti 9/11 and anti Al-Qaeda attitude shown by Muslim patriots of the west. How come they do not see how it is like to grow a byssus or wear hijab and curse the terrorists the enemies of the west at the same time.As Kamran Pasha, an occasion and a Hollywood filmmaker writes, doubting Thomas Friedman wrote an outrageous chromatography column in The New York Times claiming that no major Muslim cleric or religious organic structure has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama salt away crocked. (Pasha, 2009). Fatwa means a legal obiter dictum in Islam usually given by an Islamic scholar to clarify a question. (Wikipedia, 2013).The surprising part is that a fatwa had already been issued by some Spanish Scholars in March 2005 yet Friedman chose to lie and misguided his fellow Americans and an unknown number of souls all over the human race. Pasha further elaborates, There is a real political schedule inside the media itself to keep Islam as the enemy, and to portray mainstream Muslims as a fifth column inside America. The idea that your Muslim neighbors are silently supporting Bin Laden sells newspapers.It captures the attention of viewers of the nightly news. And it furthers the ambitions of politicians who necessitate a rallying point to mend votes. (Pasha, 2009). It is true that most of the actions taken by the Muslims in the west go unnoticed. For example, Pakistan, a country located in southbound East Asia, has been fighting the war on terror for last 12 years and has lost the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians but still media keeps limning Pakistan as a terrorist country. My question is, what would make their voices get heard? What exactly do they have to do in order to justify that they equally condemn terrorism? I guess no one better than media can answer these questions.Media decidedly needs to play a more positive role instead of neglecting the real facts. The great minds in the media who create controversial stories should emphasize on coming up with creative ideas to illuminate the audience with truth. With the help of them and general public, many atrocities can be avoided by conveying the right marrow to the public. As Cerge Remonde said and Batario writes, We (the broadcast media) deliver a lot of heat but very little light. (Batario, 2012). In conclusion, Islam has widely been misinterpreted both in the western world and the Islamic world.To solve this problem, one cannot employ to war as a solution or modification the values of Islam, but instead there needs to be a change in western diplomacy to take into account the grievances held by many Muslims. The United States needs to change its foreign policies, especially concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict, which would help many Muslims believe that the United States really wants to solve the issue at hand. Not only does the responsibility lie in the detention of United States, but also the Muslim Umma (society), who as a whole need to shade u p and realize that what they believe in is wrong and they need to square off out the truth. The authorities of Islam need to step up and take a stand.They need to educate the Muslim society and create more awareness about the true meaning of Jihad and other confusable complicated concepts. If not, certainly this is only the fountain of terrorism in Islam. Not to mention, if media cooperates and wampum being biased and one sided, issues bigger than terrorism could be overcome without atrophy billions of dollars and many innocent civilian lives.ReferencesBatario, Red. (2012, whitethorn 21). Medias Role in negate and Terrorism. Center for Community Journalism and Development. Retrieved from http//ccjdphils.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/medias-role-in-conflict-and-terrorism/ Fatwa. (2013, March 8). Wikipedia, . Retrieved September 26, 2013 from http//simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? call=Fatwa&oldid=4211834. Hess, S., Kalb, M. L., Brookings, I., & Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, P. (2003). The Media and the War on Terrorism. Washington, D.C. Brookings Institution Press. Hurley, J. A., & Hurley, J. (2000). Islam opposing viewpoints. Greenhaven Press. Israeli, Raphael. (2001).The Islamic Doctrine of Jihad Advocated Violence. Jennifer A. Hurley (Eds.). Islam Opposing Viewpoints. (20-115) San Diego Greenhaven Press. Malek, Mohammed A. The Islamic Doctrine of Jihad Does Not Advocate Violence. Jennifer A. Hurley (Eds.). Islam Opposing Viewpoints. (24-121). San Diego Greenhaven Press. Pasha, Kamran. (2009, April 20).The man-sized Lie about Muslim sleek over on Terrorism. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http//www.huffingtonpost.com/kamran-pasha/the-big-lie-about-muslim_b_188991.html Schafer, D. (2002). Islam and Terrorism. Humanist, 62(3), 16. Woodberry, J. (2002). 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