DISMANTLING THE STEREOTYPES OF ISLAM, ARAB, AND MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE VISUAL AND PRINT MEDIA OF THE WESTERN WORLD

Abstract

Reel Bad Arabs movie indicated that the 9/11 attacks provided a basis for bipolarizing the Western and the
Muslims worlds. As a result, a lot of misconceptions of the Muslim world presented in the media embody
a rigid concept, comparing and contrasting Western and Islamic/Arabic values in which Western values are
favored after the 9/11 attack. Grounded in Reel Bad Arabs and several studies of print media about Islam
representations, this paper examined the concepts of Islamophobia focusing on stereotypes of Islam and Arab
women as well as the relationship of modernity, capitalism, and Islam as they are perceived by the Muslim
world. Employing the agenda-setting theory and basic concepts of Islamophobia, this paper analyzed the
selected texts in-depth qualitatively. Correspondingly, previous researches were used to expand the account
of the relationship between Islam and the Western media. The analysis claimed that selected print and visual
media depict Islam unfavorably leading to a misconception of Islam in the Western world. In fact, stereotypes
of Islam proved to be more salient as promoted by the Western media. However, the Muslim media attempted
to challenge this by producing several media products such as Kalam Nawaem to show a more “balanced”
Islam.

Keywords: Stereotypes, media, Muslim, Islamophobia, Islam

DOI: 10.24198/jkk.vol2n2.5