Up to 90 Iraqi students have reportedly been killed for their "emo" appearances after the Interior Ministry called the subculture "devil worship".
Initially, this article seemed to suggest that Western ideals pose a greater threat to Iraqi leaders than I would have imagined. The Iraqi police have killed their own people to make an example of, or express their distaste towards Americanised values. After reading the whole article through twice, the role of the media in such a representation became apparent. I recently read a webite that stated: All Muslims are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims. The writers of this site ave positioned themselves as absolute, all-knowing authorities, and explicitly state, as if evidenced scientifically, that Muslims are all that is wrong with the world. When I read stories such as that mentioned above, it becomes difficult to train myself to avoid taking on the misconceptions and stereotypes about a religion that I otherwise no nothing about.
I cannot ignore the questions that such an article seems to arouse. Does the hatred stem that deep that anything that seems to represent Americanisms is slandered? The following, surely, is why these questions arise:
“Many teenagers have reportedly suffered brutal deaths at the hands of the authorities, dressed in civilian clothing. There are reports of groups of youths being led into secluded parts of Baghdad where they are stoned to death before their bodies are discarded in dumpsters across the city.”Or, do I know nothing fair and therefore true about the other side? Is the media to blame for my poor view of the religion that I know only for its associations with 9 11?
‘"Media outlets have published some news on the killing of 'emo' teenagers in Baghdad and other provinces but did not confirm the authenticity or the correctness of neither the news nor the numbers mentioned," Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yakoubi said in the statement on Friday’. I have never questioned the legitimacy of what I read on the news, assuming that the medium for the public to receive news and ‘truths’ always seemed too authoritative to be questioned. It may be time to start questioning what it is we are exposed to, and what is being kept hidden from us, if we really want to be informed about what’s going on in the world.
The 9 11 attacks would not have had the same impact worldwide without the media. The attacks “brought religion to the fore in new and unprecedented ways, ways that have forever shaped the way we see its contributions to politics, public discourse, social change, and political struggle” (Hoover, 2006).
After the 9 11 attacks, it became apparent that we should all be more knowledgeable about others and their perceptions of different races and religions. The modern world is saturated with journalism, constantly feeding us news about other people and places, yet we seem to know so little about what it is that’s really going on (Hoover, 2006).Is this the media and how do we do know to what extent it is mediated? What is real, what is not? Is it religious, is it not? Does it depend on whose information we’re reading, and whose sie of the story we’re on? Global understanding is not served by the media we consume. When journalism is more about getting that juicy story than it is about the truth, it is inconceivable that the East is portrayed accurately and without exaggeration and manipulation, in the West, and vice versa.
References: Hoover, S. (2006) Religion in the media Age, New York: Routledge.
Article: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8433202/iraqi-moral-police-killing-emo-youth
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