Covering Islam 2015

I recently helped organize a panel discussion at Indiana University about news media coverage and framing of Islam and Muslims. Our featured speaker was my friend Arsalan Iftikhar. You may know Arsalan as the Muslim American asked, live on air, whether he supported ISIS by CNN's Don Lemon.

The question proving the need for our panel discussion.

About 142 people, a combination of students, academics, and Bloomington community members, filled the room. 

It was a great conversation. I'm proud we were about to pull it off. You can read about it on The Media Schools' website. 

Here's a portion of my contribution to the discussion.

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Pennington said that young Muslims on Tumblr are frustrated because, despite the fact many of them were born in the country in which they reside and they speak the native language, they feel excluded.

“Yet, because of their religion, they are treated as though they belong someplace else,” Pennington said. “It rockets them into a space where they feel they can never completely be themselves.”

Pennington was clear that these Muslims are from diverse backgrounds, but a few commonalities exist in their experiences. Perhaps most pervasive is the role of media in their feelings of separateness from their home countries.

“One thing that comes up over and over again is the media’s role in perpetuating the stereotypes that frame Muslims as the ‘other,’” Pennington said. “They don’t see themselves (in media). They see criminals. They see people who might support ISIS. They don’t see human beings.”