Muslims in the Media Panel
Muslims in the Media Panel Challenges Us to Change the Story
On September 25th, Intersections hosted the first in a series of four conversations exploring the cost of war, at home and abroad. The event, Muslims in the Media, examined the media's portrayal of Muslims post 9-11 and how this has affected the American Muslim community. A press conference preceding the event announced the unveiling of the new Intersections website ChangeTheStory.net, which serves as an example of how to transform the narrative we carry of each other, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. The event included discussions about the challenges of accurate media portrayal of a diverse Muslim community, the distribution of the propagandistic film "Obsession" in swing states, and the implications of labeling Barack Obama as a Muslim. The message that prevailed throughout the event was that we need to separate the actions of a few radicals with the beliefs of an entire religion. "Islam is not radical. Some Muslims and their interpretation of Islam are," said panelist Daisy Khan, Executive Director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement. Khan went on to say, "The job that we Muslims have to do and the media has to start reporting differently on is to de-conflate Islam with the action of radical Muslims."
With an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, the challenges of accurately representing such a diverse group are considerable. Panelist Anisa Mehdi, an Emmy-award winning filmmaker, commented on how the media often represents Muslims incorrectly as a homogeneous group. "There is no 'Muslim World,' there is no 'Islamic View,' no Pope that gets to tell the world how Muslims view things officially."
Also on the panel were Debbie Almontaser, founding and former principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy and Hussein Rashid, founder of islamicate.com. Both Rashid and Almontaser are also featured on ChangeTheStory.net, along with Khan.
More than 50 people attended the event and stayed for over an hour afterwards enjoying the delicious food and wine and continuing the rich discussion. Both the panelists and the participants expressed gratitude for the safe space to discuss such an important issue.
If you were unable to join us, we invite you to listen to a podcast of the entire discussion.
Click below to listen to the audio files: