{"id":852,"date":"2008-09-10T00:00:59","date_gmt":"2008-09-10T07:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muslimahmediawatch.wordpress.com\/?p=852"},"modified":"2011-12-08T23:34:13","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T03:34:13","slug":"dispatches-undercover-islamophobia-meets-the-muslimahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2008\/09\/dispatches-undercover-islamophobia-meets-the-muslimahs\/","title":{"rendered":"Dispatches Undercover: Islamophobia meets the Muslimahs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last year, the British program Dispatches<\/em> went undercover in a Mosque in Britain to expose \u201cradical\u201d Islam functioning in Britain. I\u2019m sure the main point of that program was to scare<\/span> <\/span>inform Britons about radical Muslims who lurk in every corner. The masjid in question is funded partly by Saudi (although many masajid around the world are) and at least some of the members subscribe to the Salafi<\/a> form of Islam (erroneously called Wahhabism<\/a> in the program). Coming from a city with plenty of Salafis, I wasn\u2019t shocked by anything I saw in the Dispatches<\/em> programs. I was actually disappointed and disgusted. The message seemed to be although Muslims talk about interfaith dialogue and living in harmony with their non-Muslim neighbors, one can never be sure about that. The Dispatches<\/em> program is definitely one of the worse in a long line of media programs aimed at increasing Islamophobia among the masses.<\/p>\n

This year, Dispatches<\/em> made a return visit to the mosque. For this visit, they used a female reporter as the undercover agent and had a more explicit focus on women, unlike the last episode. When the episode begins, we\u2019re given the usual images of niqabis that are shown whenever we discusss \u201cradical\u201d Islam. I counted three shots of niqabis before we\u2019re shown actual footage from the reporter (who also donned a niqab). Curiously enough, we\u2019re shown footage, not of men<\/em> speaking of the \u201cneed\u201d to hate the kafir<\/a> and be segregated at all costs, but of women<\/em> doing this. Salafi women have propagated this separatist version of Islam for quite some time. You can see some of the remarks in the clip below:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gDlgJW_WBM0<\/a>\n

This time, Dispatches<\/em> reverses our expectations of gender norms for Muslims. Usually men are shown as active advocates for extremist Islam with women being the passive victims of it. However, in this show, women are shown actively advocating for the Salafi vision of Islam as well.<\/p>\n

A few messages about Muslim women are conveyed in the Dispatches<\/em> program. One message, which is common, is that Muslim women are complicit in their oppression and \u201cbrainwashed\u201d by Muslim men. Most of the women in the masjid wear niqab, which is associated in the West with oppression. By showing these women in niqab preaching this extreme, separatist view of Islam, a Western audience will probably come to the conclusion that Muslim women are indeed brainwashed.<\/p>\n

Another message was that Muslim women are just as dangerous as their male counterparts. This message has been propagated in the MSM a lot recently, with recent news stories on women suicide bombers and now the Dispatches<\/em> program.<\/p>\n

Dispatches<\/em> promoted more negative images of Muslim women and Muslims as a whole. It will do little to help Britons understand their fellow Muslim citizens, including Muslim women, and only serve to make a wider gap between the Muslim population and non-Muslim population in Britain.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: I found the narrator\u2019s comment, \u201cOur reporter, a Muslim herself, is going undercover in the most important and influential mosque in the country.\u201d <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I think that this inclusion of \u201ca Muslim herself\u201d is trying to give the program a sense of legitimacy because they\u2019re using an \u201cinsider\u201d. The inclusion of a Muslim reporter for this assignment may be attempting to shirk an Islamophobic image. It\u2019s like saying \u201cI\u2019m not racist! I have black friends!\u201d after you\u2019ve made a racist joke. Just because this undercover reporter is a Muslim herself doesn\u2019t mean the program hasn\u2019t been edited to play up Islamophobic fears.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, the British program Dispatches went undercover in a Mosque in Britain to expose \u201cradical\u201d Islam functioning in Britain. I\u2019m sure the main point of that program was to scare inform Britons about radical Muslims who lurk in every corner. The masjid in question is funded partly by Saudi (although many masajid around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":411,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[233,1171,2668],"class_list":["post-852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television","tag-british-muslims","tag-salafi-islam","tag-television"],"yoast_head":"\nDispatches Undercover: Islamophobia meets the Muslimahs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last year, the British program Dispatches went undercover in a Mosque in Britain to expose "radical" Islam functioning in Britain. 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