scholarly journals Islam in the Digital Films Expose the Good Sides of Muslims

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 354
Author(s):  
Primi Rohimi

Film studies mostly show Islam in negative representation. From streaming film website, we can easily find many films that show Muslims stories. For example, Children of Heaven, Le Grand Voyage, My Name is Khan, etc. Those films do not seem to show Muslims as terrorist. They show Muslims life in various cultures and stories. The problem is what good sides of Muslims in the films can counter the negative stereotypes of Muslims in Hollywood images. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, this research exposes the good sides of Muslims in films. There is an Islamic world view in Children of Heaven. Some things may seem bad but then turn out to be good in the long run. My Name is Khan has a very important message about Islam. That is Islam is a peace and love religion. Le Grand Voyage shows a signification generation gap of Muslims. They are secular and devout Muslims. But they can communicate moderately.

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Claire Jane Snowdon ◽  
Leena Eklund Eklund Karlsson

In Ireland, negative stereotypes of the Traveller population have long been a part of society. The beliefs that surround this minority group may not be based in fact, yet negative views persist such that Travellers find themselves excluded from mainstream society. The language used in discourse plays a critical role in the way Travellers are represented. This study analyses the discourse in the public policy regarding Travellers in the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) 2017–2021. This study performs a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the policy with the overall aims of showing signs of the power imbalance through the use of language and revealing the discourses used by elite actors to retain power and sustain existing social relations. The key findings show that Travellers are represented as a homogenous group that exists outside of society. They have no control over how their social identity is constructed. The results show that the constructions of negative stereotypes are intertextually linked to previous policies, and the current policy portrays them in the role of passive patients, not powerful actors. The discursive practice creates polarity between the “settled” population and the “Travellers”, who are implicitly blamed by the state for their disadvantages. Through the policy, the government disseminates expert knowledge, which legitimises the inequality and supports this objective “truth”. This dominant discourse, which manifests in wider social practice, can facilitate racism and social exclusion. This study highlights the need for Irish society to change the narrative to support an equitable representation of Travellers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lily Chimuanya ◽  
Ebuka Elias Igwebuike

In response to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, different religious-immune conspiracy theories emerged to explain the increasing scary situation in Nigeria. Emerging multifarious narratives of the contagion, which are embedded in peculiar Nigerian socio-religiosity and religious economy, reconstructed the discourses into two complexities: corona disease is an invention of the devil and other dark evil forces, and corona disease is a sign of the end of times. The obvious fabrications escalated uncertainties surrounding the pandemic as well as generated anxiety and fears among potential believers who sermonize spiritual vigilance for the ‘final battle and journey’. Drawing insights from critical discourse analysis, moral panic and frame theory, this study explores discursive means through which the pandemic is represented and reconstructed as long-awaited ‘doomsday’ warning in Nigerian online communities. Findings reveal instances of varying descriptive names, lexical derivations and discursive frames that reflect counter belief and quasi-religious ideologies. The study argues that complex religious doctrines rooted in antichrist or mark of the beast view, socio-religious ideologies of dominionism and overcommernism, cultural and personal linguistic processes have all contributed in shaping and institutionalizing the viral ‘apocalyptic’ world-view of the outbreak.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikos Fotopoulos ◽  
Vicky Karra ◽  
Christos Zagkos

Textbooks are important in many ways as they influence a student or a learner inside and outside school. Since students spend quite some time on textbooks especially in the Greek society, they are regarded more important and influential than friends, teachers, school and classroom activities, games, media and society. What needs to be considered before starting the analysis is the fact that ideology plays a significant role through the process of shaping collective representations. Additionally, it is a way of referring to a world-view of a particular culture due to their drastic impact to social consciousness. It is important to mention here that the term ‘culture’ is used in a broad sense to denote customs, attitudes and perceptions accepted and formed by people of a society, ideas and beliefs. The present article is a critical discourse analysis of ideological contents related to culture in Greek English language books of the Greek primary state education. It critically examines the following books: English 5th Grade and English 6th Grade which are taught in all primary state schools in Greece. The analysis aims at finding out the cultural ideologies which are embedded in the aforementioned textbooks. Fairclough’s analytical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth CDA) will be partly implemented in order to explore cultural themes related to social events. Related often to CDA, the term ideology does not have an exact meaning or definition since it is looked at differently in several contexts, thus making its perspectives a bit elusive. However, trying to have at least a bit of understanding of it, the objectives of this discourse analysis of the Greek textbooks are: a) to see how far they pose an impact on the learners’ worldviews, b) to examine the relationship between dominant ideology, national identity and textbook content, c) to interpret their role through the educational apparatuses & d) to be aware concerning issues such as leisure time, social and cultural effigies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-125
Author(s):  
Idalia Nuñez ◽  
Suzanne García-Mateus

In U.S. schools, educators are often regarded as knowledge producers and sole pedagogues, whereas parents (particularly of Color) are perceived as not engaged or interested in their child(ren)'s education (Colgrove, 2019; Nuñez, 2019; Ramirez, 2020). These negative stereotypes and white-centered discourses sustain raciolinguistic perspectives (Rosa & Flores, 2017) of families of Color and immigrant backgrounds. For the present study, we employed critical discourse analysis to explore why and how Mexican mothers raise bilingual children by examining how their experiences inform us about their powerful roles as critical translanguaging pedagogues. Drawing on border thinking and pedagogy of border thinking, the findings revealed two main themes: (1) how mothers recognize and draw on the ruptures of cultural and linguistic worlds, and (2) how they sustain language through family and cultural practices. Lastly, we share implications for educators, teacher educators, and policymakers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourdes Peroni

AbstractThis paper critically examines the ways in which the European Court of Human Rights represents applicants' religious and cultural practices in its legal discourse. Borrowing tools from critical discourse analysis and incorporating insights from the anti-essentialist critique, the paper suggests that the Court has most problematically depicted the practices of Muslim women, Sikhs and Roma Gypsies. The analysis reveals that, by means of a reifying language, the Court oftentimes equates these groups' practices with negative stereotypes or posits them as the group's ‘paradigmatic’ practice / way of life. The thrust of the argument is that these sorts of representation are problematic because of the exclusionary and inegalitarian dangers they carry both for the applicants and for their groups. In negatively stereotyping applicants' practices and in privileging certain group practices over others, these types of assessment underestimate what is at stake for the applicants and potentially exclude them from protection. Moreover, these types of reasoning risk sustaining hierarchies across and within groups. The paper concludes by sketching out an approach capable of mitigating stereotyping and essentialising risks.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 554-561
Author(s):  
Muhamad Shahbaz Arif ◽  
Maqbool Ahmad

The present study aims at exploring John Updike's "Terrorist", as a Neo-Orientalist account of the Muslims, especially the Arabs. In fact, there has been an age long strife between the West and Islam dating back to the Crusades. The ideology which propelled the crusaders was based on the binary of "us" versus ˜them. The Western rulers, clergy, missionaries,merchants and writers would tend to view Islam and Muslims through their myopic lens and built an exotic, strange albeit distorted image of Islam and Muslims in their accounts. These accounts influenced the representations of the Muslim and Islamic World in the scholarly discipline of Orientalism significantly.The study underpins that orientalist representations of the Muslims as barbarians, inert, unprogressive and an imminent to danger to world peace, are still very much a part of the contemporary world. This re-incarnation of orientalist thinking is termed as Neo-Orientalism in the post-colonial parlance. Many literary works published in the wake of 9/11 echoes this Neo-Orientalist thinking. Updike's famous novel ‘Terrorist’, which was published in 2006, has been chosen as a specimen text to this effect. The critical appraisal of the narrative, particularly the depiction of Muslim characters, through application of the methodology of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on the lines enunciated by Huckin, suggests that Updike has adopted a Neo-Orientalist approach by creating and fortifying the so called binary of West and Islam, and portrayed them as irreconcilable entities. Instead of bridging the gulp between the West and the Muslim World, the narrative is likely to create further chasm between the two.


2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Les Mitchell

AbstractThis paper looks at discourses related to animal farming in a popular South African farming magazine. The paper analyzes four ar ticles using a form of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Despite varying widely in content and style, all articles draw from the discourses of production and science; two also show a minor discourse of achievement. With further work, it is possible to discern a fourth, deeply embedded discourse: that of enslavement. This also was present in all the articles. These discourses objectify nonhuman animals and support a world-view of teleological anthropocentrism that fits well with present capitalist practices.


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