Opinion Editorial, April 4, 2022: ‘Why MSG-I? Launching the Global Media Style Guide on Islam’
In June 2014, Daesh, the extremist apocalyptic Irhabi group in Iraq and Syria, started to refer to itself as the “Islamic State”, following its wholly-rhetorical proclamation of a caliphate, a traditional form of Islamic governance. When some editorial newsrooms around the world made the decision to also refer to the group as the “Islamic State”, it helped mark a significantly negative phase in helping to popularise Islamophobia globally based on the horrific stories that ensued. Less than two years later, in March 2016, then-U.S. President Candidate Donald Trump stated in a media interview that “I think Islam hates”. When pressed if he thought the hatred was “in Islam itself”, he replied that it was for the media to figure out. In both instances, associating Islam with hatred, violence and terrorism was the consequence, now scaled globally. Therefore, it is clear that that the current use of media terminology about Islam and Muslims has, and continues to, contribute to fermenting greater Islamophobia globally.
This terminology, when taken as a collective, is not only alien to definitions used by Muslims themselves but highly erroneous, and at times, deeply offensive. The definitions which media organisations have for terminology about Islam and Muslims have often been made within their own newsrooms by their editorial teams, where the requisite expertise on Islam is either weak, not present, specifically ignored or as a result of lacking the resources, relationships or networks to ensure that it is.
To ensure the perfect storm, not only do media organisations focused on Muslims and Islam lack a sufficient degree of sustained and productive engagement with those managing editorial newsrooms, but at the very outset, lack specialists who only understand how global newsrooms operate as well as those have who under a nuanced understanding of Islam as it relates to the global media. As a result, the terminology about Islam, as its global narrative, is written by those who lack a deep and accurate understanding of it, but moreover, do not sufficiently represent its authentic voice. In the field of media, communications and journalism, where voices are meant to be amplified so that they can be heard far and wide, in the case of Islam, it is therefore being mollified, with the consequences being that the world is currently witnessing a global rise in Islamophobia with resultant impacts on law and policy negatively impacting Muslims. As a result, the need for articulating relevant, representative, accurate and authentic terminology on Islam for the world’s global media is imperative.
That gave rise to this study which aims to create a style guide about Islam for the global media. To determine current media terminology about Islam, style guides from two of the world’s largest news organisations, Reuters and Associated Press (AP), were studied with a view to identify words specifically relating to Islam and Muslims. The prime reason to choose specifically global news agencies was that they are organisations that gather news reports and sell them to other subscribing news organisations, such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television broadcasters. This means the largest news agencies historically have been and, despite technological disruptions to the industry, are still, generally regarded as the most authoritative, relevant, clear, fastest, and most globally-reaching news organisations in the world by their peers in the industry, with Reuters and AP being the two largest English-origin news agencies in the world, both claiming to reach a billion people daily.
The best example of how that authority is perceived by other news organisations are the style guides produced by Reuters and AP. Reuters’ Handbook of Journalism was available publicly online (http://handbook.reuters.com/index.php?title=The_Reuters_Style_Guide) at the time of the study whilst AP’s Stylebook is available through purchasing the book or via subscription online (https://store.apstylebook.com/apstylebookonline.html). The style guides are recognised as commonly accepted journalistic standards for the use of terms, spelling, grammar and punctuation, as well as providing guidelines on how to keep writing style easy to read, concise and free of bias. As a result, most U.S. newspapers, magazine, and public relations and communications firms use the AP style guide as their there standard whereas Reuters has a more European and global footprint.
One of the key strengths of the style guides of news organisations like Reuters and AP is that they focus on neutrality and being non-offensive as a matter of journalistic integrity. Having verified the authority and relevance of using these two style guides, it was important to determine what were the most important terms relating to Islam and Muslims that should have been identified for further study, not only for their inclusion but also their omission. The main criteria here was to identify words which specifically related and relevant to Islam and Muslims. In contrast, terms which were about the Islamic world geographically, but did not specifically relate to the religion of Islam and or its adherents, such as ‘Afghan’ or the ‘Arabian Gulf’, would not be included.
One of the key methodologies to determine what would be the most accurate terminology to use for Islam and Muslims in the media were firstly what the vast majority of adherents would normally use. This would allow Muslims globally to represent themselves in their own voices, using their own rich tradition and its legacy with their own major languages. Special attention was also paid to Arabic, in particular, which has been the lingua franca of the religion, with both the prayers and the Quran originally and still recited in the Semitic language today. References to the works of specialist academics of Islam, key media figures as well as international organisations, such as the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), were also consulted.
This new style guide about Islam and Muslims has 92 terms, with 63 terms from Reuters, 50 terms from AP, with 39 terms shared between the two organisations and 19 new terms specifically added. In reference to the 39 terms shared, this also means a consolidated, synergistic approach is recommended whereby the two organisations can gain 34 entries from each other. The letters with the largest number of entries are ‘S’ with 14, followed by ‘I’ with 10, and ‘A’ and ‘M’ with 9, whilst the only letters to not feature any entries are ‘L’ and ‘V’.
The terms were also classified into five categories of those that are related to Islam as 1) a religion; 2) geographical locations and places; 3) Muslim dress; 4) politics and geopolitics and 5) militants, violence and terrorism.
The major key observation from the study was that out of the 73 terms from Reuters and AP, almost as many terms relate to Islam as a religion as they do to militants, violence and terrorism, standing at 29 terms against 26 terms. This ratio can immediately be contrasted with the suggested new 19 terms to add to the style guide, where 13 relate to Islam as a religion, and a mere four relate to militants/ violence / terrorism and two to Islam as politics. Therefore, this vindicates the necessity for a new style guide: to delink the relationship between Islam and militancy, violence and terrorism, and have it be more represented accurately as a world religion with its 1.8 billion adherents.
The key recommendations from the study are:
- Globalise and limit use of Islamic and Muslim – any reference to the terms Islamic or Muslim have to be globally-relevant, representative and authentic to the religion, people and societies of Islam and Muslims. For example, Islamic faith, art and finance are accurate terms but Islamic, Muslim or Islamist extremist, radical terrorist no longer are not.
- Specifically describe subjects, but rarely use Islamic – when confronted about any topic in which Islam and militancy, violence or terrorism may be a central or even peripheral theme, journalists using the new style guide are generally urged to be more specific in the descriptions of subjects, according to their ethnic, political, national status and where relevant what ideological strand they genuinely adhere to, if relevant. i.e. Islamic State should always be referred to as Daesh.
- Jihadi is entirely replaced by Irhabi, Khawarij or Mutatarif – The erroneous and offensive term jihadi is a new term which has begun to be used increasingly in the 21st century, but there are plethora of Arabic-origin terms which relate to identifying extremists, rebels, and terrorists which are accurate and rooted the Islamic faith and tradition which can be utilised now instead of it i.e. a Mutatarif, the Arabic word for extremist, is someone who has an extremist ideology interpretation when compared to the mainstream global beliefs of Islam and Muslims, who supports the use of violence but has not committed it; the Khawarij, Arabic for rebellious outsiders, are those who threaten and utilise violence for their political aims, specifically declaring other Muslims as apostates; and Irhabi, the Arabic word for terrorist, is the term for those who use violence and terror to influence their political-led agendas.
- Mainstreaming key Islamic terms used by Muslims – The majority of new terms which have been advocated for inclusion in the new style guide are about Islam as a religion, where even terms such as Salat, the Arabic term for the prayer Muslims perform five times a day, are included. In August, 2018, Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, said in his inaugural address that his vision for the country was where citizens would no longer accept zakat but rather send it abroad to countries who would need it. The term ‘zakat’ refers to mandatory charity paid upon unused wealth, the third pillar of Islam, and hence the central political use of such terms make them worthy of inclusion.
- Placing the Sunnah at the Forefront, before the Sharia – The Sharia, Islamic religious law, has been used erroneously in the world’s media, with a de facto reference to specific capital punishments, though in Islamic banking and finance, its application in terms of Sharia-compliance and Sharia-based banking services has been positive enough to build a global USD $2 trillion industry. However, a more useful term for conveying what Islam is on a daily basis to most Muslims around the world is the Sunnah, the approved ways, practices and behavior of Prophet Muhammad. In much the same way, that the Zen way of Buddhism and Tao of China entered global popular culture to represent a certain traditional way, the Sunnah is a word which should also be more in the mainstream, as practicing Muslims make far more daily reference to it in their everyday lives than they do the Sharia, as representing them.
This new style guide is, therefore, is immediately applicable for adoption and inclusion by news organisations like Reuters and AP in their own style guides, as well as for media organisations that focus on Islam and Muslims. It also can represent a critical step in a much longer engagement process between Muslims, to articulate their own voices, and the global media. This process should aim to correct the current global misconceptions about Islam in the media whilst also suggesting new terms for inclusion, monitoring those changes for their adoption, and then expanding the scope of what future terms should be included, and in which of the world’s global languages, available for global dissemination to the world’s media.
