"Why Terror and Terrorism are the Greatest Test of Modern Journalism" by Aidan White
01 September 2005
There is no greater challenge to journalism today than finding words and images that help us to understand the nature of terrorism and religious fanaticism without falling into the trap of negative media coverage of Arab and Muslim communities.
Anti-Arab intolerance is on the rise, as is anti-Muslim sentiment, and Western media stereotypes of the Arab world seem to be greater and more dangerous than they have been for decades. Too often media fail to distinguish between fundamentalism and mainstream Islam and appear to regard engagement with religious communities as forever compromising to progressive values. In the process, there is another story – one of heroism and the struggle for rights – in the Muslim world which is being missed altogether. If ever there was a need for good ,honest reporting and for facts to be placed in the context of social change it is now, but there is little evidence that media are rising to the challenge.
Of course, the emphasis on terrorism and fanaticism in the Arab world has been made worse by the war on terrorism. It is an obsession, fed by sensationalist and superficial reporting of conflict in the Middle East and nurtured by unscrupulous and racist politicians. It contributes to an increasingly fearful climate within previously stable metropolitan communities in Europe and the United States.
Today in countries with a history of tolerance like Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands, a toxic cocktail of prejudice and ignorance about Arab culture is leading toa resurgence of extremist politics not seen for50 years.
Europeans are waking up to a difficult reality– that immigrants who began coming to Europe in the 1950s when governments and businesses encouraged mass migration, are profoundly alienated from European society and remain unreconciled to their situation in Europe. Some have turned to the most grotesque interpretation of the Islamic faith to give their lives meaning and there is a growing attachment to violence on the fringes of the diaspora.
The multicultural dream of Europe is being eclipsed everywhere. But no-one, apart from the die-hard racists, are able to describe what will replace it. The danger is that the anti-Muslim discourse of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front in France or the Vlaams Belang Party in Belgium or the British National Party may become part of the political mainstream.
The decline of investigative and thoughtful journalism is partly to blame. Even worse, some media have turned their backs on European models of balance and impartiality which are essential to the quality of this debate and complex discussion.
The murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh by alone Muslim extremist in Amsterdam, for instance, unleashed a spiral of Islamophobia, in which Dutch media, previously standard bearers for tolerant reporting, did little to dampen the fires. The government considered closing mosques that spread “non-Dutch values.” Primary schools for Arab children were fire-bombed. Attacks on Muslim and Arab communities increased. In Britain, the same pattern of racist violence against Muslims followed in the wake of the London bombings of July 2005.
Media responses have often reflected a profound uncertainty, mirroring the political paralysis and drift to extremism that threatens fundamental rights and stability within society. Yet a return to the basic building blocks of good reporting – asking simple questions, putting facts in context and striving for balance in comment – may well provide a solution.
Are Muslims really a threat? In Europe, for instance, the number of people voting for openly xenophobic parties in most countries exceeds the number of Muslims let alone those who inhabit tiny cells of Islamic extremism. In truth, Europe poses a far greater threat to Muslims than Muslims do to Europe, but this reality hardly figures in media coverage.
Who is harassing who? Countries with minority Muslim<