The Islamic Society of the London School of Economics (LondonUniversity) recently orgamed a one-day conference on “Islam, Democracy andFreedom in North Africa.” In attendance were scholars from several universitiesas well as religious leaders and former statesmen. The audience was composedmainly of university students.The first session featured S. Salaam of the Sorbonne (Paris), who discussedthe recent situation in Algeria after touching on late nineteenth- and earlytwentiethcentury social, political, and religious developments. He talked aboutthe ulama’s role as a source of mobilization against French colonial rule as wellas their attempts to motivate the masses, through their dynamic Islamic teachings,to struggle for the emancipation of Algeria. According to him, the moral andspiritual support of the learned segment of Algerian society enabled the nationalistleaders to unite the people behind a national cause, one which is also conceivedof as the religious obligation of jihad. On a more recent note, Salaam noted thatthe media has attributed the Islamic Salvation Party’s (FIS) success in the lastelections to Algeria’s economic backwardness. While there may be some truthto this argument, the success of Islamic ideology lies in its emphasis on socialjustice and equality, the strengthening of morality, and the uplifting of Qur’anicteachings. This is in stark contrast to the widespread corruption prevalent amongthe ruling elite. Salaam argued that the FIS has provided people with an authenticsense of identity which can be used to fill the gaps caused by modernization.The second paper was presented by Julian C. Hollick, a radio joumalist withAmerica’s National Public Radio organization. Addressing the topic of Islamand the media, Hollick laid out the Western media’s misconceptions anddistortions of Islam, which he attributed to either poor journalism or ignoranceof (or prejudice towards) Islam. He noted that journalists are not as objectiveas is commonly believed, for they are products of a given society and share inits stereotypical images and prejudices. These factors can prevent a journalistfrom penetrating beneath the surface of a foreign culture and society. Hollickproposed that ignorance of different interpretations of events and a superficialstudy of the phenomenon being investigated results in both poor journalism anda distorted coverage of events. He stated that many Western journalists tend tocover the ”pathologic aspects of development“ in the Muslim world (i.e., militantIslam and women’s rights) since such stories have a greater chance of being ...
MAJOR TRENDS IN EUROPEAN MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE MIGRATION CRISIS 2015-2016
