Does the Media Decide Who the Terrorists Are?

By Humera Gul
Live Wire Intern

Terrorism has been described variously as both a tactic and strategy; a crime and a holy duty; a justified reaction to oppression and an inexcusable abomination, according to the group International Terrorism and Security Research.

I think a simple definition of terrorism can be is the act of instilling fear by committing heinous and cruel acts against other people. If this is a term that most people can understand, then we can all understand that terrorism has been around as long as mankind.

The acts carried out by the Vikings were acts of terrorism. The age of Imperialism brought forth many colonizers – French, British, American and others – who terrorized parts of Africa for their greater own good. The pain and suffering Americans caused Native Americans as settlers took more and more land from them and forced them onto reservations were also acts of terror.

To terrorize is to strike fear, but when that fear becomes a reality, what is that called? This is clearly what happened to Native Americans, Africans and many others thanks to western powers.
But in today’s society terrorism has taken another form: Jihad. What exactly is Jihad?

In the simple linguistic sense, the Arabic word “Jihad” means struggling or striving and applies to any effort exerted by anyone, according to Dr. Amir Ali. For example, a student may strive in school for his education in order to better himself, or an employee may strive at work in order to grow within a company. Both of these can be called jihad.

But to many, being a Muslim in America is considered bad and scary. Stereotypes are more evident today as they ever have been. We are still stereotyping people dressing a certain way. It can be difficult today to be a Muslim in America and the reason is because of Muslim extremists and the media.

Muslim extremists portray a fake image of their religion, so every woman dressing modestly and every man that grows his beard looks to others like a “terrorist.” The reason I think the media also plays a big role in the perceptions people form is because it usually shows the negative sides of the Muslim religion rather than showing both sides equally. There are many terrorist organizations that are not Muslim and are active, but the media barely even talks about them. As the years will pass, I think the image of the Muslims around the world will be more destroyed. It’s still the fastest growing religion in the world by conversions.
Some extremists’ think whatever they do is right. This opinion is totally wrong because when we talk about Islam, it is about peace and humanity. The problem is a majority of the people in this world believe everything they see. As in all religions there are some people in Islam that interpret the religion differently. Their interpretation leads them to fundamental thinking.

I use social media, and I talk to different people around the world. A few weeks ago I was using my Yahoo messenger and was talking with some friends about Saudi Arabia’s attack on Yemen. But then some people started to talk about how the German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz crashed an airplane into the mountains of the French Alps. According to CNN News, the co-pilot crashed the plane, killing himself and 149 others aboard.

But the news channel didn’t call this an act of terror.

Why not? If someone kills himself and 149 innocent people, isn’t this an act of terrorism? According to BBC news, several years before Lubitz became a pilot he had been in the care of a psychotherapist because he was showing signs of depression.

After this news, many Muslims around the world were asking themselves this question: if that co-pilot were a Muslim, would be the news media have characterized it in the same way? Or would it be considered a terrorist attack?

Hamid Shah, from Dubai, didn’t think so.

“Two Muslim boys did an attack in Boston and it was considered terrorism. Why didn’t the media say these boys were having some psychological problems?” he said. “If Muslims make a mistake, people assume it involves terrorism, but if a white Christian were to make that same mistake, everyone would assume they had a psychological disorder.”

A perfect example to illustrate how a Caucasian individual was not portrayed as a terrorist is when the Sandy Hook School shooting happened almost three years ago. Perpetrator Adam Lanza shot 20 children and six staff members. Lanza also killed his mother at their Newtown house, according to The New York Times. In this report they mentioned, Lanza had psychological disorders. But if what he did wasn’t an act of terrorism, I don’t know what is.

When an act as heinous as an act of terrorism is committed by a Muslim, does anyone even check their medical history for psychological disorders or suicide attempts? No, people just say, someone looks like a terrorist so we don’t need to check the reasoning behind his rage or anger against us.

Media is our main source to know what is going on around the world. The problem is, our media is not always honest with us and we are often misguided by them.

If any person or group kills innocent people, and instills fear amongst others, this is committing an act of terror. We need to decipher such actions for ourselves and ask ourselves who the terrorists really are.