Literature Review
The representation of Islam has always remained quite controversial, especially in Western societies. The ambiguity of religion and its continuous involvement with terrorism made it a rather desirable target for the press. Thus, Baker et al. (2013) explore in their study, what are the peculiarities of Islam’s representation in the British press and what image the latter strives to create in the minds of the readers. The topic of the article is rather relevant at the present time since the rate of spread of the Islamic religion in the countries of Northern Europe is one of the highest in the world. Therefore, the level of Islamophobia in the region is growing, and not in the last due to the negative press influence. Baker et al.’s (2013) study reveals the specifics and describes the significance of the discussion about Islam in the British mass media. It examines a number of factors that influence the tone and general direction of the value judgments of the British press, formulated in connection with Islam.
The Premises of the Current Social Situation
In the last decade, Great Britain has been experiencing political and societal tensions in regard to the growing Muslim minority. They include, for example, conflicts on the presence of Islamic symbols in the public sphere, such as wearing hijab in public schools and building new mosques in regions of specific. In spite of the officially promoted rhetoric of “inter-faith harmony,” British society is deeply polarized; the cultural and symbolic space is divided into unspoken zones of influence. In the regions where Muslims make up the majority, the patterns of Islamic presence are different.
Some questions arise from the ambiguity of Islam’s nature and current tendencies. Why did it happen in recent world history that Islam was politicized? Is Islam really some kind of special religion that almost pushes its followers to extremism? How does the politicization of Islam affect religion itself? Why does Islam argue with itself, splitting into warring factions? Finally, does Islam have internal resources of tolerance towards the non-Islamic world? These questions are at the forefront of the press’ representation of Islam; however, Baker et al. (2013) note that they are usually posed in a less neutral way. The authors (2013) state that, after the events of 9/11, the British press has been trying to draw a distinct line between “them” – the Muslim minorities – and “us” – the mainly White and Christian majority of the population. The language here is used as a means for creating a draft in society by underlining differences in mentality and religious beliefs between Muslims and Christians, especially.
The Specific Features of Islam Representation in British Press
The radicalization of Islam and Muslims is quite definitely based on the interpretation of a number of precepts of the Koran. Nowadays, it does not matter how sophisticated the press is in political correctness, as it is impossible to deny that the terrorists in question are very closely connected precisely with Islam. The British press often argues that they are devoted to the ideas embodied in the Koran – no matter how more moderate Muslims interpret them – engaging the reader with emotional appeal. The media often uses words such as “willingly killing others”, “kamikaze,” and “religious extremism” to force negative connotations into the minds of the readers. Language, being a very powerful tool of manipulation, is used here to create a strong connection between the words “Islam” and “terrorism.” Baker et al. (2013) state that after 9/11. such rhetoric has been spreading exponentially, damaging the sociocultural image of Islam and Muslims. Muslims are perceived as devoted fanatics who wish to destabilize Western society by the means of terror and aggression.
Society’s Attitude towards Muslims
At the same time, the role of traditional religion in preserving the internal unity and consolidation of marginal social groups is also reflected in the language used in the press. It specifically shows in the discussions about the immigration of Muslim refugees and their integration into society, as these topics gain more popularity in light of the globalizing world. Baker et al. (2013) also notice that globalization, penetrating into the world of Islam, exacerbates internal contradictions, provoking the use of harsher, more destructive rhetoric in the press. According to the authors (2013), while society has been growing more tolerant towards Muslims, the resenting attitude has not truly changed. They found that in modern British media, the word “Islam” is understood as a religion of a highly politicized nature. This basically often leads to a discrepancy between the traditional understanding of Islam as a faith and the formation of a misconception about Islam.
The Evaluation of the Study
The relevance of this study lies in the increased world’s interest in Islam as part of modern political and religious processes. Baker et al. (2013) disclose that the purpose of this study is to study journalist attitudes toward Islam, recorded with the help of some methods of social research. According to Baker et al. (2013), it can be concluded that the word “Islam” is often used in a negative context, associated with such modern world negative phenomena as terrorism and extremism. Despite the fact that the British press does reveal the real state of affairs related to Islam, one can trace the different interpretations of the concept of Islam and everything related to it in them. This leads to the conclusion that Islam, in the view of modern media, is a religion closely connected with politics. Thus, “Islam” is perceived by the majority as a religion of a politicized nature.
The novelty of Baker et al.’s (2013) article lies in the analysis of building relations between the indigenous British population and Muslims. To provide demonstrative evidence, it uses concrete examples of the difficulty of implementing intercultural dialogue through the press. The material of the article is based on a detailed analysis of the Muslim-related content of various newspapers and contains a number of conclusions of practical interest. Based on a large amount of factual material, the authors examine the difficulties and problems of intercultural dialogue in Great Britain. Overall, the study showed the importance of preventing the distortion of the image of Islam in the mass media through the use of language.
Brookes, G. & McEnery, T. (2020). Correlation, collocation and cohesion: A corpus-based critical analysis of violent jihadist discourse.
The word “jihad” has been becoming increasingly known during the last two decades, as radical Islamic organizations proclaimed war on the Western world. Muslim theological literature separates the term “jihad” from the “five pillars of Islam” (shahada, salat, zakat, saum, hajj) and interprets it as an “effort in the path of Allah,” “struggle for the faith”. In the modern world, jihad is usually associated with the armed struggle of Muslims against non-Muslims, but this concept is much broader. Some Islamic theologians divide jihad into a great – spiritual struggle for the right to be considered a true Muslim – and a small – violent struggle against unfaithful. The concept of jihad is based on the historically established opposition of the “Muslim world” to the “non-Muslim.” Thus, in their study, Brookes and McEnery (2020) critically analyze the peculiar language of violent jihad in various Islamic sources. The article demonstrates the correlation that connects various language patterns of armed jihadists and the differences that separate them. The purpose of Brookes and McEnery (2020) work is to analyze the concept of jihad in the Islamic tradition and how it ranges linguistically from advocating violence to refusing it.
The Author’s Approach to Study
The term “jihad” has been subject to significant evolution from the Meccan-Medina period of the existence of the community of the Prophet Muhammad to the present. The main drivers for that evolution were the “oil factor” and the conflict between traditions and modernization” which are clearly manifested in the clash of two ancient civilizations – Muslim and Christian. As part of solving the main problem, the authors (2020) pay attention to the features and forms of jihad, as well as Islamic fundamentalism as a transcultural project in the context of globalization. Brookes and McEnery (2020, p. 354) attempt to “examine the contribution of textual cohesion, explored through the perspectives of collocation and correlation, to violent jihadist discourse.” They also emphasize the growing role of the religious factor in the development of modern Islamic civilization, the activation of ethno-confessional conflicts in the Muslim East, and the evolution of the concept of jihad.
Data Collection and Analysis Methods
The authors provide qualitative and quantitative linguistic analysis of jihadist rhetoric. The collection of texts about Islam they compiled for the study ranges from moderate to fringe to extreme in their language. Moderate texts hold no mentions of violence or radicalism, fringe are rather politically radical and religiously conservative but do not justify violence, and radical text glorify violent actions and dehumanize people. Brookes and McEnery (2020) explore the corpus to find relevant words and spelling variants in order to determine the correlation between them in relation to jihadist discourse. Various statistical and linguistic schemes were used to ensure better understanding of the purposes of jihadist rhetoric. The authors looked for co-occurrences of the terms and in which categories each of them was the most present.
Ethnic and confessional conflicts in the Muslim East are a breeding ground for the politicization of Islam and the intensification of international terrorism. The demographic boom in Muslim countries of the late 20th – early 21st centuries led to a sharp increase in the young population’s social structures and the level of education population. This provoked a continuous uprising in the level of the political thinking of the broad masses, making them susceptible to the emotional potential of nationalism, social radicalism, and religious fundamentalism. From there, violent jihadism began gaining more popularity, and the Islamic texts began to implement more aggressive language. This is especially true for extreme texts, as Brookes and McEnery (2020) found that radical terms repeat themselves the most often throughout the more violent approaches. The correlation between religious aggression and the use of the word “jihad” and its linguistic relatives was evidenced in the study. Moreover, the authors (2020) also revealed that the symbolic power of words was also important for emphasizing the jihadists’ opinions. As the “jihad”-related words have strong associations with divineness, they become a source of prestige and demonstration of strong faith.
The Study’s Conclusions
Ideology is formed through words and symbols, and the authors shed light onto the relevance of linguistic correlations in the process of building a strong discourse. According to Brookes and McEnery (2020). the struggle for symbolic power can be seen clearly in the extreme texts, as extremely violent jihadists are striving to conquer, first of all, the Muslim world. One of the main instruments of influence of Islamic terrorist groups is the language, namely Arabic. Citing examples from the Holy Scriptures, they give their “convenient” interpretation of certain provisions, as a result of which people who do not have at least minimal knowledge of that language can become victims. Thus, the attitude toward people of a different faith entirely depends in Islam on one or another interpretation of the Holy Text. These interpretations can be very aggressive, using specific words and symbols to enhance their religious significance and justify violence, as the authors (2020) conclude.
Although the study by Brookes and McEnery is focused more on the scientific aspects of jihadists’ linguistic discourse, it provides a strong evidential basis for dissecting extremist ideology and propaganda. By studying ideology, and how it is built from words and symbols, it becomes possible to identify the main instruments of violent jihadists’ influence on the target audience. The authors offer comprehensive research on the mechanism of developing violence-gratifying rhetoric in the Islamic setting.
Reference List
Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C. & McEnery, T., 2013. Discourse analysis and media attitude the representation of Islam in the British press, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Brookes, G. & McEnery, T., 2020. Correlation, collocation and cohesion: A corpus-based critical analysis of violent jihadist discourse. Discourse & Society, 31(4), pp.351–373.