Written by: Girwan Paudyal - 21107, Grade XI
Posted on: 15 December, 2019
I want all of you to imagine yourself in a scenario in one of the countries in the middle east. You see a man wearing long kurtas and with a child under his arms, coming along the dirt road. Your manipulated mind automatically switches to the term ‘suicide bomber’ but no, that’s just a struggling father accompanying his child to school so that his child can grow up and not be bothered by his stance as a Muslim in the world. The father struggles because his crops have been destroyed, his farmland turned into a warzone, his home is in poor condition but still; he is happy that he is still alive, which he cannot say for so many others who were mistaken for terrorists and viciously shot down. This is just a small view of the conditions in countries like Syria and Iraq. Upon deeper inspection, you start to realize that all these are influenced largely by the media. Not just terrorism, but everything that the West deems “not relatable” like communism is degraded by the media. I mean, how many war or action movies have you watched that show Muslim terrorists as antagonists or Russian commies as the bad guys? The number is insanely high! I don’t know how but somehow, we have managed to blame almost 1.8 billion people for the deeds of a few 100! Connecting this to the 4-way test of rotary is a bit difficult; this being a broad subject. IS IT THE TRUTH? Is it true that the media is indeed discriminating Muslims as bad guys and terrorists? It is. We don’t have to look far to find all sorts of examples. From the portrayal of plain racist stereotypes in movies to rude and condescending news articles, the Internet is full of examples of the portrayal of Muslims as bad guys. Coming this far into the point, I’d like to make something clear. I do not deny that there are terrorists out there. I do not deny that action should be taken against them. However, I do deny the abuse that is being served to many, many people for the crimes they never committed and the injustice they never did. Moving on, IS IT FAIR TO ALL CONCERNED? Of course, it isn’t! If the media, the core, the source of most of the information we get, stigmatizes one particular group from the rest then the public will follow, regardless of their doubts. It’ll build discrimination in people. Muslims will be stared at and pushed around in every part of the world. I’ll borrow an example from a show called “Home” which is essentially about a Syrian refugee living in England to escape the violence and protect his family. However, he is proclaimed a coward and a terrorist in some places but as time passes, people find out that not all Muslims are bad and the main character finds out that there are people capable of overlooking discriminations. WILL IT BUILD GOODWILL AND BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? However, if the media were to provide consolation and aid to the Syrian refugees as well as civilians then the mentality of the public will change. After all, the fear instilled is a product of the media. So, if the media does indeed change its ways and focuses more on empowering Syrian civilians and providing aid and consolation, I believe that the public will be more lenient towards Muslims overall. This will indeed build goodwill not just among different people but also among different countries and hence, develop closer bonds. IS IT BENEFICIAL TO OTHERS? Rather than answer this question directly, I would like to give a counterpart. If the media continues to bully certain ethnic groups, it’ll only develop more hate and resentment in those people. Steadily but surely, it’ll give rise to rebellions. People will stop and say,” I’ve had enough” and start taking action. There’ll be more deaths and governments will receive even more pressure. Since the situation will only worsen, it will serve as a benefit to all concerned if things can be stubbed as the way they are with the least collateral damage. We often say “Don’t hate the player, hate the game” but this is, in fact, the opposite of what should be done. Hating the game means hating everyone involved, this includes innocent children and striving mothers, all of whom have suffered at the hands of a few people who did wrong and now more and more people suffer because of them and I think we have enough proof to relay that people are suffering while we, as a group, have been blaming a lot of people for things they never did.
