Canadian journalists are becoming more sensitive in their portrayal of members of the Muslim community since Sept. 11. However, while the images of Islam have improved compared to the Gulf War a decade ago, negative stereotypes still prevail, say newspaper editors and media watchdogs.

Shahina Siddiqui, senior director of the Canadian division of the Council on American Islamic Relations, has noticed a positive trend in the media's portrayal of Islam since the attacks on the World Trade Center. For example, the local media in Winnipeg went out of their way to publish Muslim voices, which helped the community distance itself from Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. She said through her group's ongoing work with the media they began addressing issues of representation. "We were able to curtail the backlash - and without the media's support, that would not have happened," she said.

While she notes a positive trend, she believes that the media portrait of the average Muslim is still a negative one, loaded with stereotypes. Siddiqui said the general picture presented is that "Islam condones, encourages and recommends violence. Muslim women are suppressed, repressed, oppressed and depressed because of Islam. If only they would wear a mini- skirt their woes would be over."

Canadian journalists are becoming more sensitive in their portrayal of members of the Muslim community since Sept. 11. However, while the images of Islam have improved compared to the Gulf War a decade ago, negative stereotypes still prevail, say newspaper editors and media watchdogs.

Shahina Siddiqui, senior director of the Canadian division of the Council on American Islamic Relations, has noticed a positive trend in the media's portrayal of Islam since the attacks on the World Trade Center. For example, the local media in Winnipeg went out of their way to publish Muslim voices, which helped the community distance itself from Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. She said through her group's ongoing work with the media they began addressing issues of representation. "We were able to curtail the backlash - and without the media's support, that would not have happened," she said.

While she notes a positive trend, she believes that the media portrait of the average Muslim is still a negative one, loaded with stereotypes. Siddiqui said the general picture presented is that "Islam condones, encourages and recommends violence. Muslim women are suppressed, repressed, oppressed and depressed because of Islam. If only they would wear a mini- skirt their woes would be over."

She said that Muslims are also portrayed in opposition to everything positive about the West. They are "anti-democracy, anti-pluralism, anti-freedom and anti-civil liberties." At times, she said this is taken to the extreme where, "Israeli life and Western life is more worthy than Muslim life."

A stereotype arises from the feelings we have for our own group and against the "out-group." Without thinking, we act, speak and write based on our affinities for our own group, writes Jacques Ellul.

According to Siddiqui, Muslim youth are also targeted in these portrayals as deprived because they can't engage in Western relationship rituals, such as dating, drinking, dancing and partying.

Like all stereotypes, these representations of Muslims are produced by many factors. As people from different cultures and backgrounds encounter one another, it is natural to develop stereotypes as a way for one group to distinguish itself from another. It is also an easy way to avoid thinking more deeply. In his classic book, Propaganda, Jacques Ellul describes a stereotype as "a seeming value judgment acquired by belonging to a group, without any intellectual labor, and reproducing itself automatically with each specific stimulation."

He said a stereotype arises from the feelings we have for our own group and against the "out- group." Without thinking, we act, speak and write based on our affinities for our own group.

This means, as journalists, it is essential that we pay attention to our automatic responses when we encounter someone who belongs to an "outside-group," and might be perceived as the "other." This requires the "intellectual labour," Ellul talks about. As we meet new people or situations, our reflex is to automatically rely on old symbols, old frames of reference, old stereotypes.

But those aren't based on first-hand observation, they are based on received and often untested knowledge.

The news media are also prone to stereotyping through their generalizations of big issues. In Unequal Relations: An Introduction to Race, Ethnic, and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada, Augie Fleras and Jean Elliot argue that stereotyping "simplifies the media process." This simplification becomes a problem when it results in negative images. It is also an issue because dominant groups run the newsrooms in this country and are deciding on how to portray minorities.

A good journalist will challenge readers to assess their stereotypes and decide if they are appropriate.

These images have an effect on our beliefs and actions. For instance, while conducting a workshop in a Winnipeg school, Siddiqui discovered that problematic media portrayals of Islam contributed to children in grade school thinking that all terrorists were Muslims.

A good journalist will challenge readers to assess their stereotypes and decide if they are appropriate. A well-written article encourages readers, by careful reporting, to consider the ways in which we identify ourselves as an "in group," and whom we place in an "out group." Larry Cornies, editor of the London Free Press, was pleased to see cautious reporting on Islam and the Muslim community after Sept. 11. He said Canada's coverage was more careful than in the U.S. where emotions surrounding the attacks were much higher and where "duty to country almost dictates a distrust and suspicion of Islam in all its forms."

Cornies organized and moderated a workshop for journalists in London, Ont., on the topic of reporting on Islam to help address the issue of stereotyping after Sept. 11. The event was late last fall and reporters from his newspaper, radio stations, CBC, and students from journalism schools attended.

"I simply felt it important to do this - not just with our own staff, but with all media in the city, including our 'competitors,'" said Cornies. Local Muslims told him this was a first in Canada.

And in the days that followed, Islamic leaders held informal meetings with journalists including one with the editorial board at the London Free Press.

Marianne Meed Ward, a religion and ethics columnist for the Toronto Sun, felt coverage of Islam after Sept. 11 was almost positive to a fault. Meed Ward is also a freelance journalist, and former editor of Faith Today, the magazine for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. She saw an unwillingness to be critical, "in a healthy, journalistic sense of the word," of Islam.

She noted that many Muslim community leaders went out of their way to explain that Islam is a religion of peace. But that left an unanswered question: "If Islam is a religion of peace, were did the terrorists get their ideas that God would bless them for blowing up the World Trade Center?" As journalists, "we have to be tough on everyone," Meed Ward said.

How these terrorists were referred to is another issue for the Muslim community.

At a certain level the use of such terms as "Muslim terrorist"is deceiving because they lead readers to believe that they understand who Muslims are, says Mohamed Elmasry, the national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress in Toronto.

Phrases like "Muslim militants" and "Islamic terrorists" are problematic in newspaper coverage. These phrases may convey the fact that some Muslims are militant, but they also reinforce a negative stereotype. Saddiqui said that when journalists repeatedly use the words "Islamic" and "terrorist" together, the terms become synonymous in the mind of the reader.

Cornies said he would use the term "Islamic terrorist," but he would also use the term "Christian terrorist" to describe a terrorist who used Christianity to justify the killing of abortion doctors.

John Stackhouse, a theologian at Vancouver's Regent College, said journalists have to withstand the pressure from Canadian Islamic groups and continue to use phrases like "Islamic terrorists" when they fit the circumstances. "If the terrorists are motivated by their desire to further Islam, then you call them 'Islamic terrorists.' They don't accidentally happen to be Muslim, they are motivated by Islam," he said.

Stackhouse said these references may skew the coverage of Muslims, but the answer isn't to eliminate the words "Islamic terrorist" from the media. Reporters should find ways to explain that militant Muslims do not speak for all Muslims of the world.

Stackhouse said if he were to give a one-hour seminar to journalists on overcoming the stereotyping of Islam and Muslims, he would craft an introduction to the essence of Islam. He would explain the historical development of Islam, its views of modernity, women and society. And, because journalists can't handle too much complexity in their stories, he would "complexify" Islam by explaining six different terms, including the concept of "jihad," which does not simply equate with "holy war." He would help them through a paradigm shift, so that the next time they wrote about Islam, they would immediately think of it as a rich, diverse and complex religion.

As Canadian journalists continue to write stories about minority groups such as Islam, they need to choose their words carefully.

"Language is power, and words have very long-term implications," said Siddiqui. When writing about Muslims, a journalist shouldn't hesitate to check his/her assumptions with credible local sources. This can help avoid any unnecessary negative repercussions for minority groups. In essence, Siddiqui simply asks the news media to do accurate reporting, to do their homework, and to know the consequences of their actions.

Aiden S. Enns is a graduate student in journalism at the University of British Columbia.