Commentaries
Coded Language: The Portrayal of Arabs & Muslims in the American Media
By Maureen Murphy
Within a few hours of the devastating report of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., American TV viewers witnessed jubilant Palestinians dancing in the street, celebrating the loss of American life.
These images are used cyclically on the major news networks despite their inaccuracy in describing the true reaction of Palestinians. The footage shows only a couple dozen people, mostly children, giving the victory sign. The victory sign has acted as a symbol of unity among Palestinians under military occupation. Unfortunately, many Americans may draw the conclusion that the gesture communicates that Palestinians defeated Americans through the attack.
Secondly, the children are most likely too young to comprehend what really happened in New York and Washington, D.C. The behavior of these children is consistent with most footage of youth in Palestine; young people of many cultures would crowd around cameras and try to get the attention of the foreign journalists. One also wonders what media services the Palestinians have, considering that the Intifada (the Palestinian uprising against Israeli Military occupation in Israeli settlements) has left them with no economy due to military checkpoints and the razing of their olive tree orchards.
The media can do no greater disservice to Americans (especially Arab and Muslim Americans) than to provide these images designed to provoke extreme emotions in Americans at the most dire of times. Without providing a context for the scene, Americans are left to believe that this is the general mindset of Palestinians everywhere.
Perhaps these images sell a story better than reporting the true collective Palestinian reaction. The major networks seem indifferent to
the fact that Yassar Arafat gave blood the day of the attacks. The U.S. press seems to have entirely omitted the fact that a minute of silence was observed in Palestinian schools the Thursday following the attacks. Once the World Trade Center victims are recovered, surely some of them will be identified as Palestinian, and people in their homeland grieve along with the rest of the world.
This is not the first time that the American media has provided its viewers with propaganda regarding Palestinians. Just eight days before the terrorist attacks, on September 3, Robert Fisk, a journalist with the Independent, a British periodical, reported that CNN was pressured by right-wing pro-settler lobby groups to avoid terms such as "assassination," "settlements," and "terrorist" in describing Israeli military action against Palestinians. Instead of the word assassination the network now uses the safer "targeted killing," and "Jewish neighborhoods" instead of settlement.
Fisk also wrote: "In the past, CNN used "terrorist" only about Arabs - the Israeli settler who murdered 29 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque in 1994 was always called an extremist on CNN - and at one point described Arab protests at the illegal settlements built by Jews on Palestinian land as "conflicting heritage claims."
These propaganda tactics were grossly used on a recent 60 Minutes story on CBS regarding a Palestinian man that recruits suicide bombers. In an August report, Joyce M. Davis of Knight Ridder Newspapers wrote, "At one point, the translator quotes Abu Wardeh saying, '[God] would compensate the martyr for sacrificing his life for his land. If you become a martyr, God will give you 70 virgins, 70 wives and everlasting happiness'."
The report by Davis continues: "According to Mehdi Brey, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C. office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, native Arabic speakers listened carefully to the interview with Wardeh and could find nothing resembling that translation. Instead, they say, Abu Wardeh said, 'As long as I love the land (of Palestine) and as long as it is under occupation, I have no hesitation in doing what I am doing'."
What could be more frightening to Americans at the time of his country's greatest vulnerability than the sight of foreigners glorying in the news of a successful terrorist attack? To the emotionally charged person the distinction is muddled between moderate Palestinians, the 7 million Muslims living in the U.S., and the extremist movement Islamic Jihad, and Osama bin Laden's al-Quaeda.
Perhaps it was with the images of celebrating Palestinian youths in mind that Robert J. Shereikis attacked a man of Moroccan descent with a machete in nearby Palos Heights, Ill., the night of the attacks. Also, it was reported in the Chicago Tribune that a molotov cocktail was thrown into the Arab American Educational Council, a mosque and school on Chicago's southwest side. Similar reports have been made of Arab cab drivers being verbally assaulted with ethnic slurs and of threatening phone calls made to citizens of Middle-Eastern decent.
A loosely organized anti- Arab/Muslim demonstration was held near a mosque in suburban Bridgeview, but police were able to keep the approximately 300 protesters away from the religious institution. The protesters were largely high school students.
Perhaps the most intimidating news for Arab Americans, and those similar in appearance, has been the recent reports of two men being murdered at their places of business in apparent retaliations against the terrorist attacks. One murder occurring in Texas and the other in Arizona, the victims were similar in appearance to Arabs. The murdered man in Dallas was a Pakistani storeowner. The man slain in Arizona wore the traditional turban and long beard of the Sikh religion, resembling that also worn by Osama bin Laden.
These acts seem to echo the paranoia America experienced during the McCarthy era in which anyone suspected as communist was displaced from the rest of American society. Fortunately, this time around it is recognized by the government and police that these acts of violence are unacceptable. Shereikis, the man who attacked the man of Moroccan descent, has been arrested and charged with committing a hate crime among other violations.
The millions of Arab Americans, Muslims, Sikhs, and people similar in appearance to these groups can only hope that their neighbors will heed the demands of America's leaders to treat each other with respect, and that the new images of candlelight vigils asking for kindness, peace, and solidarity will be strong enough to counteract those of September 11.
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