Ever since the Crusades, a negative attitude towards Islam and Muslims has been adopted in the West. Fear and hatred towards Muslims helped shape common European identity, which has always had its own inherently inferior antipole – ''the other''. In my thesis, I tried to deconstruct islamophobia by observing historical and modern encounters of the western and Muslim world. Islamophobia has preserved and increased because of the collective memory, as well as of past and present wars, political and media discourse, Islamic terrorism and the idea of the clash of incompatible civilisations. The influence of the media is particularly strong in the construction of social reality, and media representation can legitimise or eradicate intolerance and prejudice towards certain social groups, especially minorities. In empirical part of my thesis, I examined media representations of Muslims and Islam in 2018 on the web portals MMC RTV SLO, 24ur and Delo. I did a quantitative analysis of media articles with elements of critical discourse analysis. By observing themes, sub-themes, vocabulary and semantics I established that representations of Islam as a violent religion, incompatible with the western way of life, prevail. Muslims in articles, often only vaguely mentioned, are portrayed as a problem, a threat, or even a victim. As a rule, they are represented as a foreign, abstract group, lacking autonomous individuals.
|
