THE REPRESENTATION OF ISLAM: A SEMIOTIC STUDY OF THE DOCUMENTARY FITNA AND THE PURSUIT OF AN ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVE
Keywords:
Media Representation Of Islam, Muslim Identity, Othering, Semiotic Analysis, IslamophobiaAbstract
The present study is primarily grounded in the hypothesis that the documentaries on Muslims and Islam especially originated in Europe in the wake of 9/11 are misrepresenting Islam and Muslim’ identity and generate a discourse of “Othering” of Islam and Muslims in general as well as those living in the European countries, having far reaching implications. A semiotic analysis of the signs used in it by employing the triadic model of sign given by Charles Peirce with giving particular focus on Indexical signs brought into light the referential and causal relations various signs generate with regard to Muslim identity and Islam. The applications of semiotic practices brought into light significant latent themes in the documentary where Muslims are framed as the “fundamentalist Other”. The current study also attempts to put forward an alternative Muslim narrative based on the scholarly discourse of Muslims in the contemporary era. This study also reveals as to as to how the construction of Muslim identity has been depicted by deconstructing the canonical texts as well as the selected discourse generated by some Muslims. Moreover, it brought into light the significant trends in the western digital discourse viz-a-viz Muslims and Islam.
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