We all see life through our own prism. The way the world looks to us often is not the way it looks to others.
I was reminded of that the other night during a discussion at the newspaper with a group of 17 local residents, including three from the Islamic community, who sloshed through the rain to talk about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Most were members of the paper’s Multicultural Advisory Board, which meets monthly to give us their opinions of our coverage of the county’s diverse ethnic communities.
But it was the views of the Muslims, whom we’d invited as guests, that I found most insightful, particularly their concerns about how the media have been covering the crisis and, viewed through their prism, making them all guilty by association.
Their comments were striking because editors and reporters in our newsroom – and I feel confident to say at every newsroom – have taken many steps through stories and editorials to tell their readers and viewers just the opposite.
Yet Dr. Muzaffer Shaik, a professor of engineering at Florida Tech; Hasan Dandashly, an engineer with General Electric; and Ahmed Salem, president of the Islamic Society of Brevard County, have been seeing it differently.
In recent years, the media have been quick to point the finger at Muslims for terrorist acts, even though they are not always involved, Shaik said. He pointed to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, in which Muslims were suspected before Timothy McVeigh was captured.
Such reporting “tends to prejudice us” and make Muslims run for cover whenever something happens even though they are victims too, he said, noting a mosque and the bodies of 500 Muslims are buried in the World Trade Center rubble.
To Dandashly, there are many examples of how the media have depicted all Muslims unfavorably, but one that especially worries him is the label given to the attackers.
“Why do they call them Islamic terrorists? Why don’t they call them al-Queda terrorists (which is Osama bin Laden’s organization?) Muslims aren’t terrorists, but that’s where it (the attitude) starts,” he said.
Also chilling for Dandashly has been the media emphasis on how easily the terrorists blended into American society, from working out at gyms to pleasantly chatting with instructors at flight schools they attended.
“That tends to incriminate all of us and makes our neighbors look at us and say, ‘Could that be you?’ ” he said.
Dandashly wants the press to focus more on the good things Muslims have experienced locally and nationwide, such as phone calls and e-mails they have received from friends who want to know if they are all right.
He also said that “people are just driving up to us and saying, ‘Won’t you come and please see our church’?” as a way to try to reach out.
“We’d love for the media to report more of these positive things. That will destroy the hate,” he said.
Salem wants to see something else – more press attention to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and a deep examination of the factors that spawn terrorism.
“Unless we address it in our newspapers, in our meetings, I don’t know if we can go further. We may, but it will take a long time,” he said.
As the conversation wound down, William Gary, a Kennedy Space Center worker, suggested we should do a series of articles exploring the different religious faiths in our community.
By doing so, he said, maybe people would understand that perhaps the biggest truth of Sept. 11 is that “we all bleed red blood, and we all love our sons and daughters.”
Glisch is Florida Today’s public editor. His column on media ethics and credibility appears each Wednesday. Phone: (321) 242-3968. E-mail: jglisch@flatoday.net
