The Dialectics of Integration

Despite some progress studies still show that mass media heavily emphasizes the negative aspects of Islam in its coverage. A professional conference in Germany discussed how to normalize news coverage. Loay Mudhoon reports

The media plays an influential role in the integration of Muslims and is thus instrumental in whether the political goal of "naturalizing Islam" is ultimately successful.

This assessment must be why German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble called for more sophisticated news coverage at the conference "The Image of Islam in Germany: New Stereotypes, Old Concepts of the Enemy?".

The conference, organized by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Herbert Quandt Foundation, is part of the "German Islam Conference." Journalists, politicians, media scholars, and representatives of Muslim organizations gathered to discuss how the public image of Muslims has changed since the "German Islam Conference" convened a year ago.

Climate of mistrust

"The image has changed and there is no doubt that mistrust of Islam is widespread in Germany. If you look at the results of representative surveys, these misgivings, this fear of Islam in German society has risen in recent years," Minister Schäuble described the current trend.

On one hand, Islam is more and more often wrongly equated in the majority society with Islamist fundamentalism and fanaticism. On the other hand, "Muslims complain about ostracization and flat-out rejection", confirmed Schäuble.

In this respect Bielefeld sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer pointed to the results of his 2002 study on the "Attitudes of the Population to Islam in Germany" and talked of the "dialectics of integration." Although "conflict in the integration process" is quite normal and "cultural distance" is not xenophobia, it is important to warn people about exploiting these fears in election campaigns, as it can greatly harm the integration process.

Heiner Bielefeldt, director of the German Institute for Human Rights, conceded that education is no buffer against Islamophobia: "Skepticism of Islam is rooted in every political circle and in every class of the population – all the way to the feature pages of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung."

For this reason he probably also felt impelled to plead the case for more differentiation and fairness. "The reminder about the need for differentiation in covering Islam is foremost a call for fairness," said Bielefeldt.

Normalizing Islam coverage?

Kai Hafez, media scholar at the University of Erfurt and author of a much-acclaimed study on the image of Islam in Germany’s public broadcasting services, confirmed this finding:

"These institutions have created a precarious situation with a heavy fixation on negative coverage. For instance, we hardly see any reports about the good work done by Islamists on the municipal level or their nonviolent resistance." Despite some progress this finding is also true of public media.

Elmar Thevessen, assistant editor-in-chief at ZDF, admitted that public media had made mistakes in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. At the same time he pointed out that much had been learned since and that coverage of the diversity of Muslim lives had increased.

Mass media under attack

Also standing in the crossfire of criticism are other popular media: the weekly news magazines. But Gunther Latsch (DER SPIEGEL) dismissed criticism of his magazine with the remark that it is not possible to sugarcoat reality: "Journalists report on what affects people; and when we report on Islamist terrorism, we naturally have to mention Islam."

Hope for a normalization of Islam coverage, according to Michael Lüders, Middle East consultant and publicist, will only happen when German Muslims enter the (media) institutions.

On one point Lüders and Schäuble agreed: It would help if media houses would hire more employees with a migration background to reflect the cultural diversity of German society. They called developments such as the "Forum am Freitag" in ZDF "important milestones on the path toward normality."

Loay Mudhoon

Translated from the German by Nancy Joyce

Qantara.de

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