A Reception of Muslim Images in Magazines: British Residents View the Identities of Muslim Women

Communication Programme, Faculty of Leadership and Management, Universiti Sains Islam

^* Corresponding author: ainurliza@usim.edu.my

Abstract

In the context of multi-ethnic Britain, the major concern lies in the diversity and complexity of Muslims living in the West, which somehow is misrepresented in the western media as a frozen, static population, fixed in time and space. This misrepresentation dominates mainstream media through the hegemony of western superiority. The operation and role of Muslim media organisations are still underresearched yet potentially constitute an integral part of accommodating the minority population within the wider society. This paper discusses on the reception of images published in two British Muslim magazines by taking views from Muslims and non-Muslims into account. The results show that both groups recognize the identities of British Muslims via visual representations in the Muslim media and that the representations challenge the mainstream images of Muslims.