Page - 119 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/02

Making Space, Claiming Place | 119www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/2, 107–131 response to right-wing populist discourse and sometimes in less reactive ways, for example by discussing practical issues (Islamic burial in the Nether - lands) or “controversial” subjects (freedom of speech and Islamophobia). For these sections, I draw on data gathered from a digital ethnography I conducted during Facebook “live” sessions on the official DENK and NIDA pages in autumn 2020. “Talking Back” on Social Media About a week before the Dutch government announced strict measures in response to the raging coronavirus pandemic, NIDA posted a video to their Facebook page.65 Inspired by the well-known Dutch TV program De Keu- ringdienst van Waarden (“The Inspection Service of Goods”),66 the clip shows several NIDA members calling the editorial boards of various newspapers to ask critical questions about images of visibly67 Muslim women that appeared in newspaper articles about the coronavirus, seemingly suggesting a con- nection between the two (fig. 1). As I discussed earlier in the article, social media, especially for young Muslims in a minority setting, can function as an alternative to the public sphere, where they often might feel excluded, underrepresented, or mis- represented. This NIDA video is a good example of how these dynamics can work in this context. Here Facebook functions as a third space, an alterna- tive to the public sphere where mainstream newspapers are perceived to misrepresent Muslims (in this case specifically women), and also provides an alternative place from which Muslims can offer a critique of mainstream media at a “safe distance”, so to speak.68 The latter is particularly notewor- 65 NIDA 2020a; the video was posted on 7 March 2020. 66 De Keuringdienst van Waarden is a Dutch TV program on NPO3 in which people perform what they refer to as “household journalism” – a participant might, for example, call up a company and ask critical questions about the ingredients of a food product. 67 “Visible” in the sense that all these images featured women wearing a headscarf and Islamic-style clothing. 68 One reason why Muslims feel it necessary to offer this critique from a distance is provided by political leader Nourdin el Ouali’s view of mainstream media. He argues that in his experience, NIDA is purposely not given as much space as other parties, as news editorial boards are only interested in Islam and Muslims in the context of terrorism or other neg- ative, stereotypical subjects. According to El Ouali, it is therefore necessary for Muslims to create their own media platforms; see Rijnmond 2021.