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covered the Sept. 11 tragedies and Muslims in America
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By Emily Peters
THE BATTALION
ept. 11 brought many changes to this nation,
erica was blindsided and lost its sense of secu-
as a powerful, peaceful nation. One group of
ericans feels particularly insecure and blind-
d— the American Muslim population. But no
(ties hit them — it was the media,
ight members of the Texas A&M Muslim
dents Association met in a focus group a few
ks after the attack. They discussed how they
ebeen affected by social paranoia in the after-
t Jth of the terrorist attacks.
^Brhrough their discussion, they narrowed
■vn the probable issues at the heart of the
10 need paranoia: Media-fed misconceptions
iid "The* m 111 ^ s * am an d its involvement with terrorism,
w | 1 j c l 1 Mid general ignorance about Muslims on a cul-
llow " " segregated campus.
tments sudB^ e ^' a * eat i ers agreed there were inaccurate
ipririiijiini Jinsensitive instances surrounding Muslims in
■quire riiwfJinitial media coverage of the terrorism events,
' adviser at 1 eaC ^ < ^ , ’l eren t opinions about it. \
r or thev^ ou S* as Starr, an A&M journalism profes
1 reeistratiM’ sa '^ ' s important to look at how few
ri’niduaiedi j 01 " 5 t ^ iere were than how many. He said consid-
id enforcii rushed situation in the beginning, and the
lents infer B ^ ai d facts known, the media was as sensitive
on foriMtnff cou ^ i lave been in the given situation,
ivenitv adi <« tarr sau ^ an y generalizations about Arabs and
ind D \ l ' ms l ' le ma< i e from the media’s
‘" u ..presentation were justified in the facts: people
' ia P°' Bre celebrating in the streets of Pakistan, few
| ! ' Middle-Eastern countries initially denied respon-
u.s. aia ■j|ity f or attacks, and the term jihad being
K .P»“!a»fc4tirought religious connotation,
mil i-tK'.n group member Faisal Chaundry said he
.1 x/nestei ( jBy^^jfised to see how the crisis revealed what
public knows about Islam.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about what
practice, who we are,” he said.
Ron George, faculty adviser for The Battalion,
former news writer for the Corpus Christi
taller Times, said, “The real misconceptions
ne out of the public, and the media did their
1st to cover those and offer insight.”
^America’s ignorance of the Middle East and
lam makes our coverage of that ethnic group
|ry superficial,” he said.
Focus group members commented on media
|y filed a P ■ Vera g e 0 f t | ie Palestinian children celebrating
iy probateci streets.
nily filed one si “ihgy showed it on TV a lot,” said a
rebate court group participant and biochemistry
duate student. “What they didn’t show
s a lot of other groups having candle-
Bht vigils. Yes, they may hate the
nerican government because their peo-
f are being killed with their bullets, but
y do have peace walks and donated
blood for the American people. This just shows
the one-sidedness of the media.”
George said the controversy is a product of the
medium of film that shows an isolated view of a
much broader picture.
“TV reporters have to be good about putting an
event like that into context,” he said, pointing out
the impact of 1960s coverage of small anti-war
rallies that may have sparked an entire movement.
Stan - said without covering candlelight vigils
and such, the coverage of people in Afghanistan is
already “too sympathetic to innocent Afghans
being killed in the war.”
“We are all in this war,” he said. “No one is
innocent.”
George responded to Stan’ by saying the gov
ernment is trying to convey to the media that inno
cent people wiB be killed.
“It’s a good question for the media to ask
government officials where the planes will
bomb,” George said. “No government will deny
that there will be innocent people killed in the
process of war.”
The focus group discussed another sensitive
media instance — a Muslim doctor from San
Antonio detained by the FBI a day after the attack
3r possible terrorist connections. Names of his
“accomplices” were released, but the people were
never questioned. Jm
One of the men in the focus group, a petroleum
engineering doctoral candidate,^ said if the
media had acted responsibly and with a gen
eral knowledge of Islam, they would have
known the names were bogus because they
were female, and female Muslims would
never be in thctl line of work.
He said the media also acted unfairly by not
reporting that the man was quickly released.
“They are saying you will have a
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neighbor who looks normal and talks to you for
years, and you know him, and he will end up
being a ‘sleeper,’ ” he said. “That is a very dan
gerous thing. It says, ‘Do not trust.’ ”
George said it was “wrong and a low form of
reporting” if the media coined the term “sleepers.”
Otherwise, he defended the media. George said
the arrest was newsworthy, and the media was
relying on the FBI for information, a historically
credible source.
Starr agreed with George, saying the media
attributed everything.
George and Starr also commented on Muslim
media issues since the focus group.
Starr was recently a panelist in a discussion on
Islam and the media. One panelist, an Egyptian
Muslim, spoke against the incorrect use of the
name bin Laden, saying it means “son of Laden,”
and there are hundreds of sons of Laden.
Starr called this “hogwash” and said this is an
example of the hypersensitivity of Muslims to
recent events.
“People say Lincoln freed the slaves. You think
of Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “They are not going
to confuse that with the Lincoln family that lives
down the street.”
Muslims’ reactions to a recent Battalion car
toon were not hypersensitive, George said. The
comic showed a veiled woman checking out a
Middle-Eastern dressed man with a stick of dyna
mite sticking out of his pants.
“It might have been offensive,”
George said. “But it was not done
with any evil intent.”
The Battalion took responsibility
for printing the cartoon and covered
the community reaction concerning
the controversy.
George gave other sugges-
Hi
•w®
tions for alleviating media mishaps about cultures.
“Do your research, take notes and let your
selves be instructed by people who know these
cultures,” he said, pointing out that sometimes a
10-minute interview is not enough. “Spend all
day,” he said. “In order to fix a problem, the media
must admit their ignorance and become students
of what they are covering.”
George compared the media frenzy to the
bombing in Afghanistan.
“We wish we hit the target all the time,” he
said. “When you don’t, you hurt people, lose cred
ibility and everybody loses. You don’t like it when
it happens, but it happens.”
The other issue identified by the focus
group is the lack of interaction and under
standing among the varying cultures that co
exist on the A&M campus.
This problem has not just appeared since Sept.
11. A 1998 Department of Student Affairs study
showed that 32 percent of all international stu
dents have a sense of belonging to A&M.
Although 64 percent of all Texas A&M students
wish they had more interaction with students of
different culture groups, 29 percent said they had
participated in an organized activity to promote
diversity awareness.
Inquiry attempts were made to the leaders of
multicultural and international student services to
see if the departments had made any attempts to
educate the campus about the cultures surround
ing the events. No attempts were made by the
departments to respond to the inquiries.
The University has made only one public state
ment about the issue. The day following attack.
University President Dr. Ray M. Bowen released a
letter to the entire University attempting to ease
cultural tensions.
“While there is speculation about which
group or groups might be responsible,” he said.
“It is important that all of us reach out to the
members of our international community to be
sure they and their families know that we stand
together as one family, one community at these
difficult times.”
Bryan Public Information Officer Jay Socol
said the city does not have any plans to address
the issue, but various community groups
have held programs to educate the public
about Islam.
The Society of Professional
Journalists had a speaker talk about
covering the culture in the news fren
zy, and the MSA held a panel dis
cussion titled “Islam and the
Media,” Socol said.
The Presbyterian church is
sponsoring a class in Islam, and ele
mentary schools have requested
that Mosque leaders speak to them
about the culture surrounding the
Muslim faith.
!•••«
)U know
one that
Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer's Stone
Starring Daniel Radcliffe
Warner Brothers Studios
Reel Critique
lendars.
Harry Potter (Radcliffe) is an ordinary boy, living a
)t-quite-ordinary life in the cupboard under the
sirs of his aunt and uncle’s home in Surrey,
Bigland. But when he is accepted into the Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, his whole world
|Changes. Suddenly famous and surrounded by witch
es and wizards of all ages, Harry must learn to use
his powers, study for finals and save the world from
the evil Lord Voldemort.
Originally intended for young readers, the adven
tures of Harry Potter and his friends Hermione
Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert
Grint) have captivated readers of all ages and will soon
captivate movie-goers, too. Like most movies based
on popular books, there has been a great deal of
speculation of how true to the novel the movie will be.
All those fears may be laid to rest.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is as true to the
book as any movie can attempt. Subtle plots are han
dled with artistry, and the delicate eye of people who
know that the smallest details will be important to later
movies. Potter fans will be delighted to see that the won
derful world of wizardry is just as fantastic as they imag
ined. Diagon Alley is bustling with life, the Hogwarts din
ing hall glows with floating candles and the Quidditch
field is just the place for a high-flying game of catch. But
the grand sets and fantastic creatures are not what
make Harry Potter the beautifully rendered classic it will
become. The little things are what will thrill old and new
fans. Delightfully detailed, it will take nothing more than
a moving painting to awe even the most jaded of movie
goers. While the plot moves forward, so will any num
ber of background items that most movie makers would
have been satisfied to leave stationary. It may take two,
or even three viewings to appreciate fully just how much
of the movie is woven into its beautiful sets.
But not all of the wonderous world of Harry Potter is
sets. While the viewer can be sure some of the scenes
use computer graphics, it can be difficult to tell where
the models end and the computer graphics begin. The
animation of the wonderfully battered Sorting Hat was
very well done, as was the animation of the moving por
traits, which manage to look both portrait- and life-like.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.
First-time visitors to the world of Harry Potter will love
this movie, as will die-hard fans. But at more than 2
hours and 30 minutes, plan on an early showing or a
late night out. (Grade: A+)
—Jenni Cross
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