by Stephen B.

Created on: July 30, 2008

The reason that most people can not identify the media bias against Muslims comes from the fact that they really do not know any different. For a long time the major Western media outlets have been referring to anything Muslim as Muslim or Islamic when describing the person, organization, or country. When was the last time a country was identified as Catholic or Orthodox Christian?

The majority of people in the United States have come from a Christian or Catholic background so the term "Christian extremist" or "Catholic fundamentalist" would seem unbelievable. Even if there was something of that nature to make the news then it would gain cult status. In San Angelo, Texas there was a group of Christian fundamentalist who have been given the name cult instead of being recognized as extremist like groups in the Middle East which have nearly the same oppressive views. The men had taken to polygamy and started marrying girls as soon as they reached puberty, but still no one in the mainstream Western media has called them extremists or fundamentalist.

Even when a Muslim American person commits an average, everyday crime that non-Muslim Americans commit constantly like theft or domestic violence the reports come out with the person being identified as Muslim. This is very common with race as much as it with religion, where a person that commits a crime will be identified as black or Hispanic, but if the criminal is white then the media will just say "a man/women robbed a bank today". Really unless a non-Muslim person is clergy then no one would ever know their religion while being portrayed in the news.

The average American has been hearing this type of reporting for so long that it goes quite unnoticed to the untrained eye. Also, most of America takes on Christian values which help the media describe a person as foreign or different when reporting the story.

One more example of this Western media bias is in the conflicts that arise out of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. All sects of insurgents are recognized by their religious denomination, for example the Shia and Sunni. Yet the American forces are not referred to as Christian or Catholic. Even Israel is excluded from this treatment instead of being referred to as Jewish. Serbia has also escaped being called Orthodox Christians during the conflicts with Kosovo.

Western media would not do this unless it grabbed the attention of viewers. It works so they work it. Unfortunately there are well to do Muslims that are not fundamentalist or extremist who get sucked into the negative stereotypes that define their religion in America. The image of planes flying into buildings is much too fresh in the minds of average Americans for them to accept anyone from that part of Earth.

The one thing about the Western media bias that goes unnoticed more than anything else is that it truly reflects what Western society is. Remember that the people in the media are mostly average Americans themselves who feel just like the rest of us. So when asked if the media is bias, one might also ask if society is bias as a result of the media or if the media is bias as a result of society.

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