Assignment 2 : Article 2

 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.