Islam in Media

By Dima Tarazi

Media is a growing industry. People watch, read and listen to the news all the time to see how their families are doing abroad, to find out what’s happening in the world and sometimes it could be unintentionally playing in the background such as the radio. In addition, since the media is what people all around the world refer to, they tend to believe everything; the true, the false, and the exaggeration. This further allows me to get into my topic, which is the media brainwashing people into believing that Islam encourages terrorism when on the contrary, Islam actually encourages peace.      

Etymology of the word Islam: (Wikipedia 1)

Word	Meaning
Islam	Submission
Salam	Well-being/Peace
(Derivation of) Salama	The stinging of a snake or the tanning of the leather
Saleema	To be saved or to escape from danger (when refering to a female)
Saleem	To be saved or to escape from danger (when refering to a male)
Aslam	To submit
Istaslama	To surrender
Musal	Undisputed
Tasleem	To receive a salutation or becoming submitted

This etymology is an important initial step for everyone to further understand what Islam as a religion is. Islam as a religion should not be the victim of terrorist attacks all over the world because people simply do not know who else to blame. Terrorist groups using Islam as a back bone for the reasons of their attacks allows the media to directly or indirectly say “the Muslims strike again”. People naïve enough to believe that this is the only truth only allows more support to further classify Muslims as ‘outsiders’ or ‘others’ giving into orientalism. Even if people do not believe the news, there’s always the subconscious where information sticks, out of hand. So the next time there is a terrorist attack, or any form of attack, people may link Islam to it automatically but unintentionally.

To some people, it stopped being a shock and started being casual to link Islam with terrorism, and media plays a big role. Media is a trusted source of information, and people can constantly back themselves up by saying “I saw it on the news today” when there would be 100 other sides to the story that are not actually shown on the news.

My art project is mainly about people being brainwashed by the media and, in this case, about Islam being linked to terrorism. My project is a Photoshop illustration of a regular everyday man who could be from anywhere around the world, sitting down watching the news when the media directly states “Muslims strike again” after a terrorist attack. The information travels to his brain and is shredded like any other piece of info which brainwashes him automatically. In addition, it’s to show people how the media operates when it comes to such a sensitive subject.

For all of the above reasons, I chose to do my end of semester art project on Islam in Media, because, in my opinion, media shapes the world and in time, people’s thoughts and this is what I see is happening in the case of a peaceful and beautiful religion such as Islam. Personally, I am tired of such stereotypes, and one of my main goals of this end of semester project is to destroy the link between terrorism and Islam and make it mostly about Islam and the peaceful religion. Moreover, to alert people to learn more before they assume anything at all in order not to make people victims for no reason. 

I am Muslim

By Amina Nassar

When we think of Peace the first thing that comes in mind are the wars that are happening around us, specifically in the middle east. We always think about if from the outer part, but we never paid attention to what or whom is mainly causing some of the countries collapses, and that all the wars that are happening in the Arab World is people having different believes and ideas, and are not accepting others point of views. That’s why in my Art project I would like to put a spotlight on this specific problem, and try to solve or or at least send a message to the audience that if we unite as a country it would be easy for us to fight our enemies, rather than fighting ourselves.

My idea for the art project will revolve around the importance of equality between the different Islamic sects ex: Shiites and Sunnis, and conveying the message of having a harmonized perception of how we look at both religious sects. Religions have been segmented by the people rather than understanding their true intentions of worshiping one God and one Prophet. If we breakdown the imaginary border between Shiites and Sunnis people will live in peace. Like I mentioned in my introduction, our enemies would find it easy to enter a country who’s people aren’t united. Unfortunately, that is what’s happening in our world now.

 Thinking of this idea made me curious to look for artists who have the same concept I want my art project to be about, and after researching and not really finding a true inspiration, I remembered that I have met a true inspiration artist in Salsali Private museum at Al-Serkal He is a Palestinian artist called hazem Harb who’s latest work consisted of different collage art works.   His style in art is the Contemporary art , abstract. When I spoke to him, I felt that he is passionate about his art work, and feels that to be seen you should always be unique. He showed me his work and I was truly proud that we have rising Arab artists that we as Arabs could be proud of. After I left him I went back home to search more about him, from how I was interesting in his work, I read a lot about him, and he is definitely one of my favorite rising artists. That’s why I am happy that I doing my art work something close to this talented artist.

My idea is to create my visual image on a white canvas and to portrait two opposing faces in one body the faces will consist of different images to create a collage, one face will have ( I am Shia) and the other will have I am Sunni. The images will consist of different people and symbols of each sect. The overall message is to show how these seemingly opposing sides in actuality are one entity. I hope with this small art piece my message will be clear to the audience and people would understand the concept of the art piece. 

The Misconception Mainly Because of Media

By Nicolas Gagne

Description

The title of my art work, “The Misconception Mainly Because of Media”, represent quite well the idea that most people from the West have of Muslims. I certainly do not want to put all the blame on the media of our world; however, they surely contribute to a big part of the misconceptions related to Islam. My art work consists of a hand drawing illustration complemented by a collage (the two characters) done on an 8 1/2” x 11” blank sheet. A normal HB pencil and a ruler are the only material I have used in order to complete the drawing component. Due to my lack of skills, I have decided that my art work would be better represented if the two personages were pictures added to my art work. In order to make it all on the same page without reliefs, I drew the concept as the background of the work, made my collage on top of it and finally scanned everything. After scanning the collage, I have used “Paint Software” in order to add some colors around my art work. Finally, I have printed everything and cut the edges to reduce the size of my art work.  My message is not fully explicit and this is why the viewers have to look at it for a moment in order to understand what I meant to deliver as a message with my art work. As I just mentioned, the main purpose of my art work was to provide the viewers with a strong message, which is the reason why I did not include any specific details or very limited use of colors. My main goal was to produce something simple, but shocking and direct at the same time.

Message

Over the years, I have learn a very important concept about life, which I will use as the main message of my art work. It can be summarized in a few words: “Never believe what you see or read in the media unless you have actually experienced it”. In other words, people have this tendency to believe everything they read or hear in the media which is completely the wrong way of approaching life. Media contains very relevant information that we should definitely use to our advantage; however, it contains also numerous falsifications that could lead one to believe in something that is not true. In the last few decades, Islam has been facing many issues related to peace. Moreover, Islam has been sadly linked to one concept, which is the concept of terrorism. Therefore, my main message is that it is true to say that Islam is not perfect, but so is all the other religions of this world. However, it is definitely wrong to classify each and every Muslim as terrorists, something that my art work depicts quite well. According to Shayan Chishti, 1/3 of Americans have some sort of prejudice/inaccurate view over Muslims, strongly enhance by modern world medias. They have this specific perception that “[a]ll Muslims and Arabs are terrorists; [and that] Muslims promote terrorism, along with violence in general” (Chishti, 2014). As a community, we have to work together to change these erroneous statements. Islam is, without a doubt, a peaceful religion that does not promote violence in any way (directly or indirectly). It is definitely a sad situation that many Muslims across the world have to deal with in their everyday life. All in all, I am convinced that this situation will eventually change one day, but it will take more people to speak up about this issue. Thus, maybe they could illustrate it like I did for my art work.

Short Biography

I am currently undertaking my senior year at the American University in Dubai. Originally from Canada (Montreal), I have decided to pursue my Bachelor in Business Administration (Majoring in Accounting) in Dubai due to great work possibilities and growth in the market after earning my diploma from AUD. I certainly love everything related to the business world, but I also have a great interest in sports as well as understanding various cultures coming from all over the world.

Works Cited

Abozeid, Amira. (2015, August 2). Misconceptions About Islam: Terrorism, Violence, and Jihad.              

I found Islam. Retrieved from http://ifoundislam.net/revert-supports/articles-by-subject/                   125-misconceptions-about-islam/535-misconceptions-about-islam-terrorism-violence-                and-jihad.html

Anonymous. (2008, February 25). Common Misunderstanding About Muslims. ABC News.

            Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/WhatWouldYouDo/story?id=4339516

Chishti, Shayan. (2014, June 4). The Misperception of Arabs/Muslims as Terrorists. Prezi. Re                    trieved from https://prezi.com/lbbejg3lppmz/the-misperception-of-arabsmuslims-as-terrorists/

Something Overlooked

Reem Al Ani

 “Something Overlooked” is a detailed drawing, 59.4 × 84.1cm in size, done in acrylic paints, ink pens, and felt tip markers on paper. It emulates the Persian and Ottoman miniature styles, but modernized in both drawing style – brightly colored but retailing the two-dimensionality – as well as content. Borrowing different elements of Persian miniature paintings to create one “larger” miniature, it is a collage of women going about their daily lives, mostly leisure, looking satisfied and confident. At the top left is a woman exiting her house, wearing an Abaya but with trendier clothes. At the top right, women are enjoying their day at a café on a balcony. Other women go shopping. There are women wearing hijabs and others without a hijab. Two women go camping on their own, enjoying the scene. Finally, there is a man holding a baby in his arms on an escalator. The perspective, similar to miniatures, is slightly skewed. The terrain, as well, is related to Dubai. An arabesque pattern and foliage decorate the miniature throughout.

Persian miniatures were often used to accompany manuscripts and were narrative in nature, often depicting religious events, or scenes from every day life. Miniatures are part of larger works compiled into albums that were restricted to rulers, thus were not viewed. Just like how these manuscripts are valuable and expensive, and a part of Islamic history, modern extremists nowadays would like to preserve this “liberal” image of women in the past and almost censor them from the public eye or knowledge. The scenes depicted in the artwork are normal, every day scenes in different countries in the Middle East, which unfortunately some people, particularly men, see as undesirable. These people try to justify their reasoning through religion; however, this is in fact contradictory in Islam as Khadija, the Prophet’s first wife, was a successful businesswoman in her time. The verse that is the most misinterpreted, according to several Muslim scholars, is verse 4:34 in the Holy Quran that introduces the concept of “qiwamah”, or responsibility of men over women, which some people equate to men’s superiority and authority over women, when in fact if a woman is the breadwinner of the household, she has equal responsibility to exercise guardianship over her household. Many people try to read the Quran as literally as possible to justify their actions, which has a myriad of repercussions, from the more severe, the justification of spousal abuse, to the everyday, unnecessarily sheltering women, and blaming them for being a temptation.

The inspiration to create this work around this subject matter is attributed to Hayv Kahraman, an Iraqi female artist. She examines the various ways in which the women deal with their sexuality and femininity post-war, sometimes depicting women during hair-removal and beautification process. She draws inspiration from Persian miniatures to draw her women, and her Muslim women express their identity in different ways, and are not a homogenous group of people.

Reem Al Ani is an Iraqi student studying Advertising at the American University in Dubai. She enjoys creativity, complexity, and controversy, and employs this in her illustration and written work to the best of her ability. She seeks irony in every context, and social issues such as the abuse of domestic workers and environmental issues fuel her desire to communicate and impact others whenever possible.