On page 200, McAllister discusses the ideological move toward framing the Middle East by its relation to Islam, rather than oil wealth, Christian Holy Lands or Arabs. During this time, Islam itself becomes conflated with terrorism. McAllister says that the specific kind of terrorism that the 1980’s focused on was of hijackings, bombings, and taking hostages. This “encounter” with Islam/terrorism by way of media/television served an important role in constructing national interests at the time.
This vision of Islam as terrorist religion has obviously remained in the minds of Americans, and in fact many others around the world. One reminder of this is the Danish cartoons that appeared in 2005, depicting Muhammad as a terrorist. This encounter of the cartoons, and the controversy surrounding it, was certainly also constitutive of the US national interests of the time, given 9/11 and the Iraq war. Furthermore, many European nations, most notably Germany, but excepting England, came out in defense of the publication of the cartoons, arguing for freedom of speech. Iran responded by asking for submissions of holocaust cartoons, to see to what lengths Westerners would go to protect “free speech”…
I think what’s interesting about this particular example is that it began in a country outside of the US but the debate and the cartoon went global, and certainly affected me and I assume many others. It forced many Americans to rethink the way Muslims and Islam were being represented in the media. It (hopefully) made people look up a bit more about the religion, and possibly changed the public perception of Islam as Jihad-happy religion (a la hijacking etc) to one that is fundamentally about peace and inner jihad…
What effect do you think the cartoon scandal had on you and people you know? Did it reinforce perceptions of muslims, or demand that we deconstruct them?
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