Conclusion

Abstract

From the Western media perspective, the Muslim world looks monolithic, static, different and oppositional. We wrote in Chapter 1 that Muslims will soon comprise one-quarter of the world’s population, with approximately 60 per cent residing in the Asia-Pacific region, while only 20 per cent live in the Middle East. These figures contradict the popular image of Muslims as Arabs. The overwhelming majority of Muslims remain committed to Islam’s central beliefs and practices, which originated almost 1500 years ago in the same geographical milieu as the other Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity. These three faiths have more in common than is widely acknowledged. In general, however, the views of Muslims about social issues are more conservative than those of Westerners, but this should not be perceived as a source of conflict. Muslims are far more culturally, religiously and ideologically diverse than they are portrayed to be in Western media coverage. Moreover, the development of democracy in Turkey and Indonesia, and more recently its emergence in Tunisia and Egypt, denies the orientalist perspective of the Muslim world as static and incapable of progress. A limited understanding of these facts among audiences leaves them susceptible to accepting narrow media coverage of specific Muslim individuals and groups as representative of Muslims in general. This results in flawed analysis and misconceptions concerning the evolving realities of the Muslim world.KeywordsMedia CoverageAsylum SeekerNews MediumMuslim CommunityMuslim WorldThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.