Page - 123 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Souley Hassane | Mainstream Media vs. Ethnic Minority Media 123 3.1 Oumma.com and the specter of 9/11 The events of September 11, 2001 constituted the framework of a new relationship between the media and Islam, and dealing with the topic of Islam in media production became increasingly questionable. Before this dramatic incident, French media coverage of Islam focused on Algeria, and its Islamists and military. The French media took part in an occidental trend of misinformation and over-information, setting a very questionable backdrop for ensuing debates. The media coverage was disastrous for the image of Muslims and Arabs in the world. Within a period of two years, the press wrongly established a link between Islam and violence, terrorism and war. The French press engaged in a form of symbolic warfare through reports, forums, articles, and interviews with specialists, etc. The question I will address here concerns how and why dealing with such topics generally proceeds in much the same way and with the use of the same terms. This is the context in which Oumma.com was obliged to take a stand against attacks on Muslims; thus, the articles from this site should be read with this context in mind. After 9/11, certain journalists of the dominant media published articles employing especially violent language which ran contrary to the established notions of professional standards. Oumma.com had to then simultaneously condemn the attacks, and to unswervingly refute the link between Islam and terrorism and the allegation that Muslims are loyal to the cause and instigators of these attacks. Furthermore, it was necessary to answer to a French press which, on the one hand, sympathized with the suffering of the Americans, and on the other, allowed itself to oversimplify matters, confuse various issues, and disseminate stereotypes and even lies. Many important figures of French journalism, politics and media urged caution against these anti-Arab and anti-Muslim statements. Yet, within two years, this atmosphere made a strange way of being racist and of affirming and proclaiming racism publicly acceptable. From this point on, populations of foreign origin began to feel that a lamentable era was on the rise, insofar as it progressively did away with the achievements of the French model of integration. The aims of certain politicians fell on fertile ground here. French Arabs, Muslims and Africans who were in no way linked to terrorism made the front pages of Libération, Figaro, Le Point, L’Express and Le Monde. Media workers engaged in making events out of non-events. This created and continues to create the impression that the media are focused on some sort of local, regional and national symbolic geopolitics. The law passed on 15 March 2004 regulating women’s use of the veil marks the culmination of this atmosphere, in which all political colors fuse into one. The media presentation of the veil issue is uniformly negative, and many