Quote:
"No one is as murderously 'Islamophobic' as Islamists are." Nick Cohen (The Observer)
"I believe in the religion of Islam. I
believe in Allah and peace." Muhammad Ali
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 especially 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",
many people had argued that Citizen Khan 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...”
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 “The TV regulator has received about 20 complaints about the
sitcom, which debuted on BBC1 in Monday night, and is now assessing them”.
Ofcom can have big disadvantaged on the shows
rating and on the broadcaster themselves as Ofcom can be used by the government
to hide the truth or distort facts; the writer Adil ray is trying to uncover
the truth to the public about Muslim life through a humorous way.
Ofcom did have affect on the broadcaster, BBC has it had more viewers on
the show on the second night than the
first night as the complaint made more watch the program. BBC as whole is
funded by the public through a government scheme called the license fee; the
main mission statement of BBC is to inform, educate and entertain with every
program created as Citizen Khan does as well by informing the public about the
Muslim culture, educating by teaching them the norms and values of life and
introducing humour in to the day to day life of the characters making it
entertaining. As in ‘Citizen Khan, Mr Khan played by Adil Ray compares himself
to being a dedicated Muslim but part of the British culture as well as he
doesn’t want to pay for his daughter’s four day wedding so he recommends the British way of marriage “20 minutes in the registry
office and cucumber sandwich”.
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, this relates to the type of audience that
will watch ‘Citizen Khan’ as the audience could be either British or Asian.
But the certain audience that will be viewing ‘Citizen Khan’ are linked
to the typical C1 & C2 demographics as they may be working class people
trying to relate to a family, this means they can identify with the family as
Mr Khan is a working man providing for his family. ‘Citizen Khan’ viewers can
be linked to Stuart Hall’s, theory, “the spectacle of the ‘other’ ”
as over the representation of Muslims had changed so had the audience
interpretations due to 9/11 many films such as ‘The Agency’, the film had
replicated Osama Bin Laden’s plans as the meaning of ‘other’ is replicating
Muslims terrorist to be compared to aliens as they are outsiders and a threat
to society before the 9/11 the ‘other’ was the IRA ( Irish Terrorist) so ‘The
Agency’ (2001-2003 broadcasted by CBS) replicates Terrorism. An 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 created with the audience as
relationship are portrayed through Citizen Khan in Family and community. The
audience may see themselves reflected in the texts generating personal
identification and another is surveillance which doesn't link
with the text. The audience psychographics that may watch Citizen Khan is a 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, also they may be mainstreamers as
the broadcaster BBC 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 as
some stereotypes do reinforce Islamphobia as a scene from Citizen
Khan shows an discussion about immigration “Immigrants are
those Europeans”
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 as Mr Khan was once a
immigrant and is a Muslims so Mr Khan is represented as man who took over the
jobs of British Citizens. However Adil
Ray didn’t want this to be the preferred reading of the text this is when
“He/she detotalizes the message in the preferred code in order to retotalize
the message within some alternative framework of references”;
he wanted to show the daily life of a British Muslim struggling to make a name
for him in society. The oppositional reading of the text was that Muslims were
being represented negatively in the aspect of the Mr Khan’s daughter using the
Quran to cover up reading a modern magazine.
‘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 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 Khan builds up a connection with another film which relates
particularly well with the stereotypes put across young Muslim women as Muslims
women have changed and adapted to fit in to the strict and modern surroundings
in society as 'Yasmin'(2004) 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.”
Relating to the points above 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”
this shows a more sensitive side to Mr Khan as he is a caring and loving person
as he not only shown as a Muslims but a family man. 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” so over the years especially in Citizen Khan
the representation has been changed and adapted due to the 9/11 bombings many
individuals aspect of Muslims have changed. The information about Muslims was being fed to audiences through
mediums like the media, this is related to the hypodermic needle “But those
effects are no longer presumed to be simple as a hypodermic needle injecting
emotions or ideas into a spectator” ; the hypodermic needle is a way that the audience
receives the information transmitted via a media text without any attempt to
process or challenge any data, The hypodermic needle was used by the government
to communicate a message through propaganda in the first world war.
Another sitcom like Citizen Khan in its own century was Mind your
language, it was shown in 1977; the show was broadcasted by London Weekend Television (LWT) (now
part of ITV London), ITV makes it profit through commercial/advertisements. The show was
schedule to be shown at the weekend after 6-7pm as it was a family show much
like Citizen Khan 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 English
as their second 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”.
This links to Citizen Khan as it is a multicultural program too which shows
different types of people like Kris who is a Muslim convert.
Mind your language is quiet similar
to Citizen Khan in most aspect like the comedic side but Citizen Khan relies
more on the stereotypical side of Muslims as it is the writer Adil Ray’s
interpretation of 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”
and still is but when Mind your language had
come out many ethnic minorities were taking over the white peoples jobs, this
had created moral panic in 1977 “I am coming here for be learning the English” 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.
So issues in the society have changed
over the years as in the past, in ‘Mind your language’ as they tried to include
many countries due to the post-colonialism beginning, as England had tried to
bring people over from different countries; in the sitcom, Mind your language
they try to teach English to people from different countries in which they have
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”
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 because he was a Muslim and connected to jihadism, many people
were connected to the 9/11 bombings even people who were differently religion
and because of expressing their religion, “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.”[19]. The
9/11 bombing had become a globalised news linking on to Galtung and Ruge theory
“they argue that there are culture-bound factors influencing the transition
from ‘events’ to ‘news’”,
as is a event becomes more newsworthy it will concern more people therefore will become a news item. So linking
this with Citizen Khan as it started to become regulated by Ofcom it had
creating a controversy by people therefore became a news item in the media and
became the top trend on twitter everyone was talking about in the summer.
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”.
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.
Even though many shows show
negative stereotype Muslims, Citizen Khan is just parodying the culture. Sitcoms
don’t show danger of Muslims and society but it does vow other culture to try
to accept Islam for example the white guy converting to Islam and becoming the
head of the mosque instead of the head of the church. 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?”,
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!”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.’”
Citizen Khan & Adil Ray’s main aim was to show the family lifestyle and
dedication to religion as they visit the mosque often. The overall hypothesis
didn’t agree with opinion created by me as I believe that not all sitcoms
reinforce Islamphobia; as some subvert the idea of Islamphobia to get the
society to get more knowledge on the Muslim culture by include many British
stereotypes.
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Citizen Khan Immigrants Ep 4
