Stereotypes

My attention was drawn recently to a site called Muslim Wakeup! An article by Raheel Raza made me stop and think again about Islamic stereotypes:

" During the height of the Danish cartoon controversy, Canadian media interviewed male Muslim leaders exclusively, without bothering to seek out leaders among Muslim women. It’s a given that Muslim leaders are men, preferably with beards. Haideh Moghissi, Professor of Sociology, York University, says that rigid, unforgiving and sexist voices are considered voice of authentic Muslims by Western media. When a Muslim woman speaks out or assumes a leadership role, she’s called militant. Yet the struggle for sexual equality and leadership among Muslim women is gaining strength around the world."

Why does the media choose the bearded autocrat over any other strand of Islam? Is it because it comforts us to see Islam in this narrow way? We have cerrainly seen this in the Sun and other British gutter press where Abu Hamza (see above), a pretty vile character admittedly, was not that far away from being the new bogeyman. But it is not just the media that looks on Islam this way: all too many on the left lionise fundamentalists for their stance on the iniquities of the USA yet they turn a blind eye to their intolerance and misogyny. We need to look at Islam in a different light but where should we look to for positive images? From what little I do know perhaps RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, or Shirin Ebadi would be good starting points.

RAWA

Shirin Ebadi

Muslim WakeUp!