Presentation of the topic
Stereotypes about Islam in the media, islamophobia and how to define stereotypes and prejudices?
Every society has its own ideas, stereotypes and myths about other nations, religions, and ethnic groups. Each culture considers itself to meet its own norm and everyone else is considered different. Moving across cultures is comparable to crossing a minefield, where you can stumble upon misconceptions (but also surprising exceptions) at any moment (Lewis 2002: xvii). However, changes in societies and globalisation have shown that cultural diversity is not a phenomenon that passes over that all cultures do not become similar. Rather, the modern world has made places that are thousands of kilometres away just a distance of a few hours, and just a few hours away there are situations that require us to understand and interpret the world and ask why reinterpretations arise.
Watching the various European media outlets over the last 20 years, the message is that Muslims are to blame for the disaster of 9/11 and the problems of migration and terrorism. Various studies show that the media portrays Islam as a monolithic and homogenised religion. Muslims are often described as heartless, brutal, uncivilised, religious fanatics, militants and terrorists, or simply representing social problems due to war and conflict. Conflicts with Islam and Muslims in the Western society can also be explained by the prevailing religion and foreign domination in society. The Western media do not portray those who could question the image of Islam as an adversary. At the same time, it is common for the concept of Islam and Muslims to be included in various headings to which it does not really belong in order to draw attention and give weight (Saman Rezaei, Kamyar Kobari & Salami, 2019: 70). The media tend to generalise the two opposing camps of Islam and the West, ignoring the notion that various conflicts have mostly socio-political and economic causes. Islam is presented from the perspective of the “white man’s world” and Muslims are classified as the other which opposes the familiar us (Matthes, Ahmed, 2016: 4). The results of various studies show that Islamophobia is perceived in the Western world as a fear caused by a sense of danger. All Muslims are in danger, without going into specifics and without thinking that a unified homogeneous Islam is a symbolic expression rather than a reality.
Islamophobia
The Runnymede Trust Report (1997) defined the concept of Islamophobia as anti-Muslim prejudice and describes such a closed view through the following perspectives: “1. Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change. 2. Islam is seen as separate and other. 3. Islam is seen as inferior to the West and is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive, and sexist. 4. Islam is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, and supportive of terrorism. 5. Islam is seen as a political ideology and is used for political or military advantage. 6. Criticisms made of the West by Islam are rejected out of hand. 7. Hostility toward Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices toward Muslims and the exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society. 8. Hostility to Muslims is seen as natural or normal” (The Runnymede Trust Report 1997:1; Tiliouine and Estes 2016: 626).
How to understand stereotypes, prejudices, different images and perceptions?
Image is a term that refers to an imagination (often illusory) that arises after observing something or someone. The resulting image contains information about the world around us, which may not always be in accordance with reality nor the reality of the creature or situation it depicts (Raudsepp and Hiiemaa 2009: 5). A curved mirror effect may occur when obtaining different images during the process. This means that the reality depicted passes through many social filters, but is also associated with different prejudices and stereotypes. In this way, however, reality is not created in shape, but instead a pseudo reality is created (Berger and Luckmann 1991: 13). Various scholars have approached understanding and defining an image from the principle that images simplify reality. Daniel J. Boorstin calls the emergence of an image a “synthetic reality” (Boorstin 1962: 189). Olavi K. Fält sees the simplification of reality behind the images (Fält 2002: 8). Researcher Erkki Karvonen is of the opinion that the image is not a pseudo reality, but that each image must be understood as a social reality because the formation of the image has been influenced by various social factors (e.g. economy, health care, education) (Karvonen 1997: 319; Raudsepp and Hiiemaa 2009: 5).
In today’s context, it is the reality of mass media that influences the emergence of different images. Different media platforms are a good example of how a communicator separates from direct communication and the flow of information can take shape and create a pseudo-reality (radio, photography, film, television, the constant flow of online news has exacerbated this phenomenon). This pseudo-reality affects millions of people (Boulding 1956: 55; Raudsepp and Hiiemaa 2009: 6).
Stereotype. The beginning of the term stereotype comes from the Greek terms stereos (spatial) and typos (trace). The concept of stereotype reached a wider audience and academic literature through Walter Lippmann, a social scientist and American journalist, in his book Public Opinion (1922). This book is a critical assessment of functioning democratic governance, especially irrational and often selfish social perceptions (Raudsepp and Hiiemaa 2009: 6). W. Lippmann says that stereotypes are images we have created in our heads. Lippmann believes that every human being is always defining the world outside and then they start to see this world according to their definition. In the moment, we begin to associate the created image with its objective world – our understanding is more a response to the image of the world rather than to an actual objective reality. In Lippmann’s opinion, such stereotyping is inevitable, because a person would not be able to understand the world without the images they created. Each one creates certain stereotypes about reality because it simplifies one’s life in the complex reality of the world (Lippmann 1962: 10).
Over the past 30 years, stereotypes have been defined in different ways in relation to both peoples’ ethnic as well as their racial background (Leyens, Yzerbyt and Schadron 1994: 11). Stereotypes certainly carry certain aspects of truth, but they do not allow objective access to social reality. Their job is to construct and thereby create our identity by defining it. And it can often be related to our lack of knowledge of reality. Stereotypes can also be called a social barometer. Through them, it is possible to measure the ups and downs of society as they often emerge (become important) during difficult times. When societies are faced with significant change and great breakthroughs, stereotypes tend to develop in order to simplify social problems. However, when societies are faced with calmer and more blissful times, stereotypes tend to recede or lie dormant only to rise again later. Thus, stereotypes do not disappear, their function may simply change (Raudsepp and Hiiemaa 2009: 8).
Like Lippmann, Allport argues that stereotypes persist, primarily because they help people to simplify different categories of the world and the objective reality. Stereotypes provide an opportunity to justify hostility and to support and justify the social order that someone may want to guarantee. Stereotype can also easily be used as a projection of one’s personal conflict – they provide an opportunity to legitimise what is desired, but which may not be an objective reality (Allport 1988: 187).
Prejudice is a set of different and mainly negative attitudes, and the consequence of prejudice is stereotypical thinking. Prejudice refers to opinions and perceptions that were not based on prior knowledge nor on actual reality. Every society has prejudices and they all have a clear purpose: distinguish between different groups in society and distinguish our and the position of the I group from other groups in society. Specifically, distinguish between us and the other. The citations of researcher Allport are in relation to larger societies wherein prejudices have already manifested because those societies are faced with a lot of competition in different social fields (Allport 1988: 187; Raudsepp and Hiiemaa 2009: 9). However, certain conditions, situations and events are also needed for prejudices to arise. Prejudices arise more rapidly in situations where the social structure is (rather) heterogeneous and society is undergoing drastic social change, such as a growing number of different minorities (including the growing number of Muslims in Europe). The proportion of prejudices increases with ignorance or the alienation of persons or groups and with situations where there is no opportunity to communicate directly and get more information about those persons or groups. In addition, prejudices in society increase when there is strong competition for different resources, such as unemployment, a lack of housing, and realistic dangers such as war, instability and inequality. Prejudices arise more in an aggressive society, where there is a political force that promotes narrow-mindedness and xenophobia and does not allow for cultural fusion and multiculturalism. Prejudices are also more prevalent among groups that legitimise their existence through traditional ethnocentrism, relying on their national law to repel others (Allport 1988: 187; Raudsepp and Hiiemaa 2009: 9). In conclusion, it can be said that conditions that promote a lot of uncertainty, struggle for positions in society and groups that are different and lack information about each other are conducive to prejudice.
Conclusion
The previous descriptions indicate that people tend to use stereotypes in order to simplify various understandings in society that would otherwise be difficult to cope with. Prejudices help societies to encapsulate the unknown from a distance. They are also used to project conflicts and fear (islamophobia). Additionally, prejudices have certain tasks in society – they change the position of the I and our groups in the social at the expense of the other. The media analysts mentioned above have suggested that the stereotypes associated with Islam and Muslims (e.g. as terrorists, oppressors of women and opponents of democracy) are becoming more prevalent. These stereotypes are also often presented through a certain contrast between us and the other with the Western World as us and the Muslims as the other.