Quote: "No one is as murderously
'Islamophobic' as Islamists are." Nick
Cohen (The Observer)[1]
"I believe in the religion of Islam. I
believe in Allah and peace." Muhammad Ali [2]
In what ways does "Citizen Khan" reinforce Islamphobia?
In what ways does "Citizen Khan" reinforce Islamphobia?
As Citizen Khan was watched
throughout the summer, it had the most negative welcome on television as the
audience had knocked it down on social networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter which had caused a big controversy for the writer, Adil Ray
in reality and cyber reality. Discussed in the Guardian, "Was Citizen Khan written in 1972? The Pakistani
stereotypes are just painful"[3],
many people had argued that it
had portrayed many negative stereotype of Islam as a whole;
this links to Islamphobia, Islamphobia is being fear of all Muslims/ Islamic
persons, the word can be applied to any criticism of Muslim or Islam practice.
It had created a moral panic in today society as the actual meaning was
being changed “A condition, episode, person or group of persons
emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interest; its
nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass
media...”[4]
and the audience started interpreted that
Citizen Khan subvert the opinion that it reinforces Islamphobia as there are no
signs of Islamphobia in the show as the Writer Adil Ray was trying to show his
interpretation of life as a Muslim; As Citizen Khan shows a
Muslims nuclear family living a normal life which connotes to his
younger life; the show is relevant to post 9/11 as The sitcom was also investigated by Ofcom.
Citizen Khan had been broadcast by a well-known institution BBC is funded by the government through the license fee which is paid by the public, the mission statement of BBC is to inform, educate and entertain with all their programs as 'Citizen Khan' does that by informing the public about the Muslim culture, educating them by teaching them the norms and values of life and entertaining them by introducing a bit of humour in the day to day life of the characters. As in Citizen Khan , Mr Khan compares himself to a being a dedicated Muslim but a part of British culture as well because he doesn’t want to pay for his daughter four day Asian wedding so he recommends the British way of marriage “20 minutes in the registry office and cucumber sandwich”[5]. This also subverts and doesn’t reinforces Islamphobia as it shows a normal family conversation in which helps the British side and Asian identify with the ways of marriage that able to them.
The certain audience that will be viewing citizen khan are typical C1 & C2 demographics as they may be working class people trying to relate to a family in which they can identify with linking it to citizen khan viewers to the Stuart halls theory, “The spectacle of the ‘other’ ”[6] the other is way that Muslims are represented in the media since 9/11 due to many films such as 'The Agency' replicating Osama Bin Laden as the meaning of 'other' is replicating Muslims terrorist to aliens as they are outsider from different countries as before the 9/11 the 'other' was the IRA ( Irish terrorist), The TV series 'The Agency' (2001-2003 broadcasted by CBS) replicates terrorism. The audience theory closely link to 'Citizen Khan' is the Uses & Gratification discussed by Blumler and Katz, diversion as the audience may want to escape their normal life, personal relationships may be also portrayed through citizen khan such as Family, husband & wife and community, Personal Identity with others as the audience may see themselves reflected in the texts and another is surveillance which doesn't really link with the text. The audience psychographics that may watch Citizen is mainstreamer as people that use social networking sites may want to conform and fit in so they don’t stand out from their fellow users and they may be mainstreamers as BBC is a well known and that can be connected to brand identity. The audience can be connected to Islamphobia as if a TV channel like BBC showed a program that reinforced Islamphobia that will affect its rating as the world is a multi cultural society in which Muslims are watching the program to and do not want to stereotyped.
Negativity is used throughout citizen khan some stereotypes which does reinforce Islamphobia as a scene from citizen khan shows an discussion about immigration “Immigrants are those Europeans”[7] but as the scene progresses the daughter implies that he is an immigrant as well this implies that all Muslims are immigrants who come from different countries to take over jobs, this can be linked to the 7/7 bombings as all the bombers were British born who do not work so Islamphobia in a sense in citizen khan is pitied in relation to Alvarado.
Citizen Khan shows that Muslims are going through a sense of change to modernity due to the new generation, as Mr Khan's children Shazia and Alia are wearing 'white masks' to betray society; as the audience feel like normal Muslims children would not be open about relationship like Amjad and Shazia and this also links on to Alia who tries to impress her friends to conform to groups but wants to be a good Muslim and make her parents proud but she tries to deceive her parents into saying she going to study really going to party, Alia's character in Citizen builds up a connection with another 'Yasmin'(2004) it is about “one young British Muslim woman's experiences in a working class in the north of England after 9/11. The film aims to make sophisticated observations about identity crises alienation ; the central character, coexist uneasily demands of her traditionalist father and the community of which they are part, while carrying on a clandestine relationship with John, a white male fellow worker.”[8]
But Citizen Khan also has an positive
aspect as it is shown as a peaceful and content religion throughout 'Citizen
Khan' this is shown through the basic father and daughter conversation about
the bird and the bees, “covers are off and you let him play on your pitch”[9]
as most of Citizen Khan is shown in mosque the resembles devotion and
determination of the religion the most of the sitcom doesn’t reinforces
Islamphobia to the audience as it shows that Muslims are not only terrorist but
just a religion as before the 9/11 period Muslims were seen as “sophisticated,
diverse and historically fluid”[10] so over the years especially in Citizen Khan
the representation has been
Mind your language is a Sitcom shown
in 1977; the show was broadcasted by London
Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of ITV London), ITV is a
commercial profit making TV channel. The show was schedule to be shown at the
weekend after 6-7pm as it was a family show which made the sitcom be suitable
to be shown at primetime. The show had target audience of white middle class as
white people found it humorous to watch ethnic minorities suffer learning their
language by going back to school in which was said by the screen online that
mind your language was “the new multi-racial comedy series”.[11]
It is quiet similar to my text due to the comedy but Citizen Khan relies more the stereotypical side of Muslims as it is the writer Adil Ray interpretation of his life but 'Mind your Language' is self representation of the country at that stage as it was going through the post-colonial era as the media had used this as an opportunity to put down different ethnicity, “media images command too much attention and can be exploited at times of crisis and security of kind that post 9/11 produces”[12] and still is but when Mind your language had come out many ethnic minorities were taking over the white peoples jobs“I am coming here for be learning the English”[13] in which Mind your language had been created by white middle class authorities at that stage of the post colonial era they promote hegemony as the creators had subordinated common sense which means that they had been feeding the target audience to become more racist and stereotypical over the years, this can be linked to why people link Islamphobia to being in fear of Muslims.
The society and the issues that I
am investigating have changed over the years as in the past, in the
text 'Mind your language' they tried to include many countries due to
the post-colonialism beginning and the country had tried to bring
over people from different countries as in the program they
try teaching English to the people from different countries in
which they taught them. This was changed over the recent years due to the 9/11
attacks & the 7/7 bombings in which TV especially
American television had changed their aspect of Muslims. Muslims are
seen as “Dangerous, Pitied, Exotic and Humorous”[14]
in both shows this reinforces Islamphobia as you can link those statement with
terrorism as dangerous as they blow them self up when doing acts of terrorism,
pitied as Muslims are seen to be immigrants from different countries, exotic as
they come from hot countries which have wars going and humorous as they are
portrayed in shows like Citizen Khan and Mind Your language.
Islamphobia had been represented
negatively in the media since the 9/11 bombings happened and the religion Islam
was connected to it due to Osama bin laden’s plans “So, Islam was explicitly represented
as a problem, and this was reinforced by the reference to Khaled Kelkal,
accused of participating in a number of terrorist attacks in the summer of
1995, and shot by police on 29 September of the same year.”[15] .
The
media is controlled by hegemony therefore the audience throughout the 9/11 was
feeding on information which lead to Islamphobia “The discourse of terror post
9/11 has become globalized both in the flows and formation of the world’s news
media and conduct of geo-political ambitions”[16].
Post 9/11 had changed the narrative of films and TV episodes as binary
oppositions good vs. bad, as the bad is the middle eastern society; this links
to Citizen Khan as there has been a change in society and politics since the
president changed and Citizen Khan has a main protagonist that is a Muslim and
this doesn’t reinforces Islamphobia as Mr Khan’s character is a practising
Muslims and it doesn’t lead to any type of terrorism or jihad society
As a Muslim, Citizen Khan doesn’t
reinforces that many types that link to Islamphobia but Citizen Khan as a
sitcom it has subverted but stereotyped the Muslims culture by making a mockery
of the show “@Original Ted: Citizen
Khan is just s***, why try make Islam look like that?”[17],
this had an effect on Muslims & British individuals on social networking
sites like twitter as Muslims had been mad because their religion, Islam had
been made of a mockery due to the daughter using the Quran to cover up reading
a modern magazine “HIGHLY disappointed
especially when her father walks in and she dis-respectfully opens the Koran!”[18]
The writer Mr Adil Ray who also played Mr Khan main aim wasn’t to
stereotype Muslims or to make fun of the Islamic/ Pakistani culture; it was to
show there is another side to Islam another then jihadist blowing themselves in
acts of terrorism. But Citizen Khan was created to “But Ray, a British Muslim, told BBC Radio Five Live: ‘Citizen Khan is
not a Muslim comedy, it is a British family sitcom. It is family comedy with
universal themes of hypocrisy, deceit, and relationships that we can all
connect to.’”[19] Citizen
Khan & Adil Ray’s main aim was to show the family lifestyle and dedication
to religion as they visit the mosque often.
Word count: 1,977
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[1] The secret scandal of Britain's caste system-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/26/nick-cohen-trevor-phillips-caste-discrimination
[2]I
believe in the religion of... at Brainy Quote http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/muhammadal134539.html
[3] Akbar, A. (n.d.). Citizen Khan is not just outdated,
but lazy and offensive - http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/29/citizen-khan-is-not-just-outdated-but-lazy-and-offensive/
[4] Cohen, S. (2002). Pg 1
[5] Citizen Khan Episode 1
[6] Hall, S. (1997). Pg 269
[7]
Citizen Khan Immigrants http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bs4UvAHPvU&safe=active
[8] Bullock, K. (2002). Pg 15
[9] Citizen Khan Ep3
[10] Local media representations of Islam before 9/11 http://www.academia.edu/1017562/Local_Media_Representations_of_Islam_before_9_11
[11] BFI Screen online: Mind Your Language (1977-79, 1986).
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1108213/index.html
[12] Said, E. W. (1979-1978). Pg xxvi
[13] Mind your language(1977) Ep 1
[14] (Alvarado et al. 1987:
153)
www.teachingrace.bham.ac.uk/.../Race_Ethnicity_Theoretica
[15] Local media representations of Islam before 9/11 http://www.academia.edu/1017562/Local_Media_Representations_of_Islam_before_9_11
[16] Altheide,
D. L. (2009). Terror post 9/11 and the media
[17] Citizen Khan provokes 200 complaints as BBC is accused
of insulting Muslims
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2194972/Citizen-Khan-provokes-200-complaints-BBC-accused-insulting-Muslims.html
[18] Ibid
[19] Citizen Khan does not stereotype Muslims says show's
creator
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2196104/Citizen-Khan-does-stereotype-Muslims-says-shows-creator.html
