"For decades, scholars and observers have criticized negative media portrayals of Muslims and Islam. Yet most of these critiques are limited by their focus on one specific location, a limited time period, or a single outlet. This book offers the first systematic, large-scale analysis of American newspaper coverage of Muslims through comparisons across groups, time, countries, and topics. It demonstrates conclusively that coverage of Muslims is strikingly negative by every comparative measure examined. Muslim articles are negative relative to those touching on Catholics, Jews, or Hindus, and to those mentioning marginalized groups within the United States as diverse as African Americans, Latinos, Mormons, and atheists. Coverage of Muslims has also been consistently and enduringly negative across the two-decade period between 1996 and 2016. This pattern is not unique to the United States; it also holds in countries such as Britain, Canada, and Australia, although less so in the Global South. Moreover, the strong negativity in the articles is not simply a function of stories about foreign conflict zones or radical Islamist violence, even though it is true that terrorism and extremism have become more prominent themes since 9/11. Strikingly, even articles about mundane topics tend to be negative. The findings suggest that American newspapers may, however inadvertently, contribute to reinforcing boundaries that generate Islamophobic attitudes. To overcome these drawbacks, journalists and citizens can consciously "tone-check" the media to limit the stigmatizing effect of negative coverage so commonly associated with Muslims and Islam"--

In this classic work, the author of Culture and Imperialism reveals the hidden agendas and distortions of fact that underlie even the most "objective" coverage of the Islamic world. "No one stuyding the relations between the West and the decolonizing world can ignore Mr. Said's work." --The New York Times Book Review From the Iranian hostage crisis through the Gulf War and the bombing of the World Trade Center, the American news media have portrayed "Islam" as a monolithic entity, synonymous with terrorism and religious hysteria. At the same time, Islamic countries use "Islam" to justify unrepresentative and often repressive regimes. Combining political commentary with literary criticism, Covering Islam continues Edward Said's lifelong investigation of the ways in which language not only describes but also defines political reality.

Interviews with young Muslims in Chicago explore the complexity of identities formed at the crossroads of Islam and hip hop This groundbreaking study of race, religion and popular culture in the 21st century United States focuses on a new concept, “Muslim Cool.” Muslim Cool is a way of being an American Muslim—displayed in ideas, dress, social activism in the ’hood, and in complex relationships to state power. Constructed through hip hop and the performance of Blackness, Muslim Cool is a way of engaging with the Black American experience by both Black and non-Black young Muslims that challenges racist norms in the U.S. as well as dominant ethnic and religious structures within American Muslim communities. Drawing on over two years of ethnographic research, Su'ad Abdul Khabeer illuminates the ways in which young and multiethnic US Muslims draw on Blackness to construct their identities as Muslims. This is a form of critical Muslim self-making that builds on interconnections and intersections, rather than divisions between “Black” and “Muslim.” Thus, by countering the notion that Blackness and the Muslim experience are fundamentally different, Muslim Cool poses a critical challenge to dominant ideas that Muslims are “foreign” to the United States and puts Blackness at the center of the study of American Islam. Yet Muslim Cool also demonstrates that connections to Blackness made through hip hop are critical and contested—critical because they push back against the pervasive phenomenon of anti-Blackness and contested because questions of race, class, gender, and nationality continue to complicate self-making in the United States.

In the constant deluge of media coverage on Islam, Muslims are often portrayed as terrorists, refugees, radicals, or victims, depictions that erode human responses of concern, connection, or even a willingness to learn about Muslims. On Islam helps break this cycle with information and strategies to understand and report the modern Muslim experience. Journalists, activists, bloggers, and scholars offer insights into how Muslims are represented in the media today and offer tips for those covering Islam in the future. Interviews provide personal and often moving firsthand accounts of people confronting the challenges of modern life while maintaining their Muslim faith, and brief overviews provide a crash course on Muslim beliefs and practices. A concise and frank discussion of the Muslim experience, On Islam provides facts and perspective at a time when truth in journalism is more vital than ever.

After September 11, many in the American public and media zeroed in on Muslims in America and the world, irresponsibly linking_intentionally or not_Muslims at large with terrorism. This well-researched book explores this focus and its implications. At the same time, the authors do not leave out the opinion of Muslim Americans, exploring their views about the American media and its influence, their attitudes toward non-Muslim Americans and, just as important, their opinions on postD9/11 U.S. counterterrorist policies and practices. This book not only serves students and scholars in the fields of Middle East studies, media studies, and international communication but is also an enlightening read to anyone interested in mainstream America's perception of Muslims.

Hiding behind the Muslim woman’s veil is a heart longing for honor but often covered in shame. Meeting her will transform us all. Muslim women are coming out of hiding and telling their stories. With courageous voices, they disclose tales of shame and a fierce desire to be valued. We hold our breath as they whisper accounts of Jesus dressed in light, coming to them in dreams, offering honor in the place of shame, freedom instead of oppression. Their tales narrate a secret reality for all of us. We all long to be known, to be valued, to be rescued. We all are in desperate need of a Savior. In Covered Glory, you will meet Muslim women living in a culture with an honor-shame worldview that perpetuates their shame. As you discover how these women find freedom when they uncover their true identity, you will find that shame affects each one of us. Learn that while… shame tells us we are unworthy, truth tells us we were made to be loved shame tells us we are nobody, Jesus tells us, “You are somebody to me” shame tells us we are broken, God’s Word tells us healing comes from him It is only when we begin to understand the honor-shame gospel that we are set free. And so is our Muslim neighbor when we learn to tell her of the love of Jesus in a language she understands: the language of honor and shame.

Family, Law and Politics, Volume II of the Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, brings together over 360 entries on women, family, law, politics, and Islamic cultures around the world.