By: Kurt Youngdahl and Heather Funai

By: Kurt Youngdahl and Heather Funai

How/Why does the media's portrayal of attacks differ when done by Muslim people versus non Muslim people?Prompt:V.S.

We chose this prompt because the media magnifies Islamaphobia more than any other issues with relgion or culture. Throughout this presentation well be discussing how the media and other influential people in the country see terrorism and who they point to finger to first. And how the media distorts their information to the public. In the pictures above is Osama Bin Laden and Anders Breivik who is the Christian terrorist against Muslims in Norway.

People's views on terrorismWhen multiple (explosive) devices go off thats an act of terrorism- Senior Admin Officer"Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror" -President ObamaTerrorism vs. Criminal incident

In some of the upcoming slides, the difference between terrorism and a criminal incidident will play an important role in how the media chooses to define an act of violence. These are some of the common misconceptions about what is considered a terrorist attack.

Definition- The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce especially for political purposes. Terrorism?

So what exactly is terrorism? Its not a word that most people know the true definition to, its a word that people have learned and assumed a defintion to through the influence of societal proganda brought forth mostly through the media. Understanding the true defintion of terrorism is critical to understand how the media portrays people behind acts of violence.

The MediaINCENTIVESVIEWERSHIP

ISLAMOPHOBIA!!

Entertainment WorldV.S.

In order to see how these types of stereoptypes get reinforced into the general populations brains through souces other than the media its easy to find when looking at the entertainment world. If you look at iron man especially the first and third one there is a very strong depiction of terrorism paired with the islamic religon and culutre where as when you look at an example such as skyfall the bad guy being clearly of the caucasion ethnicity, does everyhing like a terrorist but at same time has no dpeiction or paring with this concept. In skyfall the bad guy is simply depicted as a brilliant phyco. This is just a quick example concepts revolving around islamaohobia get conditioned into our brains.

Anders Breivik = Al-Qaeda

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/20/breivik-terrorist-like-al-qaida

His sentence is "easier". maximum of 26 years in prison. treated like a regular criminal. Trial is publicPeople suspected of being part of al quida are sent to guantanamo bay for trial

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/world/europe/anders-behring-breivik-murder-trial.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Hard core Christian who is very anti-Muslim. Bombed the capital of Norway in protest of the immigration of Islamic people in Europe. after the bombing he went to an island full of children and killed them. News of this terrorist attack not as big as Boston Marathon bombing or Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting.

Take a guess which persons crime got labeled a terrorist attack?

President Obama:"we will investigate any associations these terrorists may have had"

"On Monday an act of terror wounded dozens and killed three people at the Boston Marathon.The point is before any information leading to a possible motives was known the media along with President Obama had already jump to the conclusion of terrorism.Boston Marathon Motive Do Not Align with Terrorism

If you look at the boston bombing motives its clear even with the newly released information that their actions were nothing but acts of revenge against a group of people that showed offense to their religion, they were not interested in creating political unrest ect only simply making a statement. Even before this new information was released the media had already clearly depicted the suspect as a terrorist, with president obama following suit as you can see.

Muslims are the scapegoat of these situations. The New York Post quickly claimed that the prime suspect was a Saudi national-Glenn Greenwald, The GuardianPointing the Finger

When something goes wrong, we tend to blame it on others. After the boston marathon bombing, people started pointing the finger at Muslims. The New York Post, claimed that the prime suspect was from Saudi Arabia. One man who is from Saudi Arabia, was wounded in the leg and was brought in for questioning. Jane Harmen, a democratic representitive told media that Muslim groups were suspected to be behind the attack

FBI Statistics

Acorrding to fbi statistics compiled by princten unversity roughly over 90% of terrorist attacks on the US since 1980 were by non muslims based off of the united states govermnents formatted defintion of terrorism. To contradict this another survey taken by columbia university revealed that US citizens believed over 80% of terrorist attacks on the US were by muslims. This kind of completely skewed perception is simple example of the power of the media and its stance.

CONCLUSION

Things are rarely what they seem, in this situation the word terrorism and the islamic people should not be paired without a closer look. The media being the number one influence on american minds has a very strong agenda that can be clearly revealed through their simples incentives and should not be the endall to your opinions or beliefs. Beneath the surface the truth could not be farther from reality.

Greenwald, Glenn. "The Boston Bombing Produces Familiar and Revealing Reactions." The Guardian. N.p., 16 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 May 2013.Freedland, Jonathan. "Anders Breivik Is a Terrorist, so We Should Treat Him like One." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 20 Apr. 2012. Web. 5 May 2013.Paris., Mark Lewis And Sarah Lyall; Mark Lewis Reported From Oslo, And Sarah Lyall From London. Alan Cowell Contributed Reporting From. "Norwegian Mass Killer Gets Maximum Sentence: 21 Years." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Aug. 2012. Web. 5 May 2013.Landler, Mark. "Obama Calls Blasts an Act of Terrorism." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Apr. 2013. Web. 5 May 2013.Johnston, Robert. "Terrorist Attacks and Related Incidents in the United States." Terrorist Attacks and Related Incidents in the United States. Johnston's Archive, 5 May 2013. Web. 16 May 2013.Greenwald, Glenn. "Why Is Boston "terrorism" but Not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tuscan, and Columbine?" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 22 Apr. 2013. Web. 6 May 2013."Non-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil." Washingtons Blog. Princeton University, 1 May 2013. Web. 16 May 2013.

Work Cited