How is Islam portrayed in media?
Written by Kousalya
The laws of Malaysia
can be separated into two types of laws which is written law and unwritten law.
Written laws will be laws which have been authorized in the constitution or in
legislation. Unwritten laws will be laws which are not contained in any
resolutions and can be found in case. This is known as the common law or case
law. In circumstances where there is no law administering a specific situation,
Malaysian case law may apply. Apart from that, the constitution of Malaysia
also provides a unique dual system such as the secular law which is criminal
and civil and sharia laws.
Islamic law which is
sharia law, and in Malaysia is referred to and spelled as sharia. The court is
known as the Sharia Court. Sharia law plays a small role in characterizing the
laws on the nation. However this just applies to Muslims. Sharia law in
Malaysia is very important because majority of Malaysian are Muslims. Its role
is to covering matters such as morality issues, inheritance, marriage and
divorce. For example, Muslims who skips their Friday prayers, who drinks, eats
or smokes during Ramadhan, Muslims girls who dress inappropriate, divorce cases
will be taken action by Sharia laws. However, non-muslims are required to
follow secular laws that deal with the same matters. According to Islamic Law
in Malaysia, Sharia is applied on some matters throughout the country and has
been applied in a more extreme manner in two Malaysia states which is Kelantan
and Terangganu. The sharia system, which issues decisions under Islamic law, is
made out of a high court and courts in each state. A system of superior and
subordinate courts handles common and criminal law. Superior courts includes
the Federal Court, the Court of Appeals, and two High Courts. Shariah courts
regulate the personal issues of Muslims, while common courts governs Hindus,
Christians, Buddhists and different religious minorities.
From this, there are
certain issues that we journalist will not able to touch because of the
presence of Islam in Malaysia. In this case, journalist have to be very careful
in what issue they are trying to bring up to the audience since the message can
be portrayed in a different way especially when they are covering about Islamic
news. In such way, a journalist must cover a news not only from their
perception but from perceptions from others. For example, a news which involves
Islam must be accepted by the audience who are reading it because it can be an
Uztad, a religious Islamic person and also Islamic parties. Journalist should
not simply cover news which involves Islam and that is why one should know what
are the sensitive issues in Malaysia.
This is because
Malaysia have their own unique law and it is very crucial for Muslims who
disobeys the law. This does not apply in another country. For example, in
western countries, they have the press freedom where offended does not
concerned for the citizens. Journalist can bring up or discuss about any
current issues. They do not have to look back to any particular laws where
certain issues cannot be spoken or written to the public. When we compared to
Malaysia, journalist have to go through the sharia laws and issues that
journalist should not touch because that can be offended.
This all sums up how
media portrays about Islam to the media. According to WACC, the fear of Islam
appears after the 9/11 bombing incident at World Trade Center in New York, the
Taliban’s fundamentalist proscriptions and restrictions in Afghanistan, the
Charlie Hebdo attack in France, and the emergence of the self-proclaimed
Islamic State group (ISIS) which allegedly shows videos of the beheadings of
the prisoners who are more often journalist. At the same time, there were
certain issue happened in western countries when it comes to journalism, media
and Islam. This happens because of the mind set that Islam are terrorist in
western countries. There were a propaganda saying that “Terrorist are always
Muslim, never white”.
The fact is that Islam
has been constantly portrayed by worldwide media as a violence religion that is
oppositely restricted toward the West. The question of "Islam and the
West" has been the topic of different scholarly gatherings in the USA,
Europe, and different nations including Malaysia, it has likewise been the
topic of analytical writings, talks, and publications. These trends illustrate
the significance of the topic, which has significance for other countries in
Asia and Africa where Muslims can be found. Noor (2007) argued that, “Muslim
identity and the concerns of Muslims are increasingly being defined in terms of
an oppositional dialectic that pits Islam and Muslims against the rest of the
world” (p. 261), as Islamophobia has become the mainstream media discourse
“where images of Muslims as murderous fanatics abound in movies, videos and
computer games” (p. 267).
He also proposed that
the solution to the present predicament faced by Muslims the world over can be
found in the corpus of Islamic theology and praxis itself, particularly in the
concept of tawhid, which refers to the unity of all creation and the
fundamental equality of the singular human race. The idea of tawhid reminds
Muslims that all human beings are equal and are thus entitled to their own
share of respect and dignity.
As hostility and
misperceptions between Muslims and Christians persist in an alleged “clash of
civilizations”, Noor asserted that there is an urgent need for Muslims to get out
of this rut by shifting their focus to other issues and concerns that are more
universal in nature such as the debate over globalization, specifically, “the
environmental movement, the pacifist movement against war and the trade of
arms, the campaign for equal labor, the campaign against exploitation of
children and most recently the wave of anti-globalization….” (p. 274). When
Muslim concerns for justice, equity, rights and freedom are articulated in the
context of a borderless world where the audience is not only Muslims but the
world as a whole, that will be the time when “the image of Islam and Muslims
will stand above the crude and poisonous images we see today” (p. 276).
Moving on, when it
comes to Malaysia, we have Islamic parties which is PAS where they proposed
implementing hudud laws on Muslims in Kelantan. Hudud laws cover prohibitions
against things, for example, adultery, abandonment, theft and robbery, and
recommend disciplines thought about cruel or surprising in most Western nations
which is public beatings, stoning, amputation and public execution. They're
also very uncommon in most Muslim countries except for those, for example,
Saudi Arabia or Iran which follow the most strict interpretations of Islamic
sharia law.
In this case, Aisyah a
journalist who works with independent radio station BFM, mocked the party in a
video titled “Hudud: A Rice Bowl Issue”. As she crosses an imaginary border
into Kelantan, a headscarf shows up on her head. Finding a rock rather than
rice in a bundle of food, she throws it away and shrugs, saying "Oh well,
we have hudud,don't we?" and giving an ironic thumbs up. Her point? That
rather than Islamic law, the PAS should be more worried about issues, for
example, the economy and reproduction after serious floods in the area.
However, the BFM Radio
eliminated the video from its YouTube page the day after it was posted, yet not
before it became a web sensation and was reordered somewhere else on Facebook
and YouTube. On only two of the more well known Facebook pages it has been
viewed more than 780,000 times in total. Yet, alongside the viral hit however
came an immense backfire. One particular threatening thread on Facebook began
with the remark: "Those who insult the laws of Allah, their blood is halal
for killing" Others came to the journalist's defence. "Making you
feel offended means you can rape and kill that person....brother, do you think
you need to do some self reflection and soul searching..?" commented Chiam
Soon King on the Sisters In Islam Facebook page.
After all, media plays
a big role in captivating audience’s perception and mind set and it is very
important on what media is bringing up to the citizens. I would say that
citizens believe whatever they see in the media, but there are lots of hidden truths
that are not revealed to the citizens. It is a place where the good portrayed
as bad and bad portrayed as good. Journalism and Journalist have their roles
and laws yet some issues are not revealed because journalist’s life are
threatened and also because of some parties. As I said earlier, journalism is a
whole thing about everyone’s perception not only one particular perception.
