This Critical review will discuss the article The Language of Islamic Extremism towards an Automated Identification of Beliefs, Motivations and Justifications. (2002) It will be argued that while the study exhibits depth of research, clearly defined corpus techniques and a nuanced area of discussion, the aims of the paper are not explicitly defined and the acknowledged limitations of the study leave the conclusions relatively underwhelming.
Prentice, Rayson and Taylor (2012: 259-260) aim to indicate how and why corpus linguistics techniques can be utilised, in order to discover the ideologies expressed by Islamic extremists through various collected material. As a hypothesis however this is rather inexplicit, as no suggestion is given to what the linguists expect to discover, and the description of the ‘techniques’ is quite vague. This is in contrast to Alharbi (2012: 109) who declares clearly what terms will be traced, in what context and through what techniques. This study represents a shift to a distinct area of research, as the vast majority of corpus studies have focused not on the language of Islamic extremists, but on the rhetoric used to represent Muslims. Baker et al. (2013) examines uses of the word Muslim in the British Media; Salama (2011) explores how Wahhabi Islam and Saudi Islam are represented in the United States; Alharbi (2012) studies the Australian media and how Islam, Arab and Muslim are reflected; and Martin and Phelan (2002) compares the immediate representations of Islam following 9/11 on US Television and online. While not only proving useful in providing unique data, Prentice et al. (2012) have uncovered a new area of study and prompt further corpus linguistic research.
One way in which this article e...
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...e Messageboard Discourses. Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation 20 (3) p263-269
Prentice, S. Rayson, P. & Taylor, P. (2012) The Language of Islamic Extremism Towards an Automated Identification of Beliefs, Motivations and Justifications. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 17 (2) p259-286.
Richardson, J.E. (2004) (Mis)representing Islam: The Racisim and Rhetoric of British Broadsheet Newspapers, Philadelphia, John Benjamins
Salama, A.H.Y. (2011) Ideological Collocation and the Recontextualization of Wahhabi-Saudi Islam post 9/11: A Synergy of Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse & Society, 22 (3) p315-342
Schieffelin, B.B. Kathryn, A. & Kroskvity, P.V. (1998) Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory, North Carolina, Oxford University Press USA.
Sinclair, J. (1991) Corpus Concordance Collocation, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Pement, Eric. “Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam: Part Two.” Cornerstone. 1997, vol. 26, issue 112, p. 32-36, 38. < http://answering-islam.org.uk/NoI/>.
On September 11, 2001, since the terrorist attacks, many American Muslims have been stereotyped negatively in the United States. Salma, a Muslim woman, says that the way Muslims have been recognized in the media has played a big role in the antagonisms directed to her. “I don’t know how many time I heard my classmates accuse me of being al-Qaeda or a terrorist” (Mayton 2013). Salma, along with other Muslims, even after a decade, are still struggling with trying to find their “American” and “Islamic” identities, while facing verbal attacks for their ethnicity. Too often, the general Muslin population gets lumped in with the immoral acts of a few because of the lack of knowledge about their culture.
Has the New York Times negatively stereotyped Arab Muslims for the past forty years? The goal of this research project is to reveal the negative stereotypes directed towards Arab Muslims in the New York Times. The critical focus of the research is the consistency of the negative stereotypes. The underlying focus is what theoretical and historical effects result from the negative stereotypes.
Witham, Larry. “Muslims See Wordplay as Swordplay in Terrorism War.” The Washington Post. 24 July 2002. Web. 3 October 2012.
category ‘Arab–Middle Eastern–Muslim’ enemy and rendered persons associated with this category as embodying a ‘culture’ and/or ‘religion’ th...
Hill, Jane H., P. J. Mistry, and Lyle Campbell. The Life of Language: Papers in Linguistics in Honor of William Bright. Berlin [etc.: Mouton De Gruyter, 1998. Print.
Ward, Lucy. "Muslims Get Angry at 'Bad Guy' Film Images." Guardian.co.uk. The Guardian, 25 Jan.
Karen Armstrong’s essay out of her novel The Case for God is a logical piece of literature that uses formal expository writing to educate its readers on radical terrorism. Following 9/11, a significant amount of the public’s beliefs shifted to blaming all Muslims for the one attack, defining their religion as a danger to our countries. Armstrong never disagrees that the attack on 9/11 could be due to religious reasons, but demonstrates that this is radical terrorism and does not represent Islam at all. The organization of her essay builds upon using facts and her thesis, that is positively presenting Islamic values is more constructive on allowing our countries to have better relations, is supported through her academic style of writing. Armstrong
The news today has to do with what people want to hear, not particularly what is worth while or even accurate. In the Daily Telegraph’s (English newspaper) foreign news page there is a story of an outbreak of violence by political protests in the Middle East. Patrick Bishop, the senior editor on Middle Eastern affairs, writes: "Western leaders are becoming increasingly concerned by the threat to democracy posed by the growth of Islamic fundamentalists extremism." Other headlines from random British newspapers convey the same message: "Italy on security alert after Islam terror warning; Clinton to lead summit against Islamic terror; France fears protracted Islam terror campaign; Islamic fanatics gun down Briton in terror campaign" (Edward Mortimer). This is the message that the media is sending to all its readers and watchers about Islam. These headlines may have hap...
Crawford, James. “A nation divided by one language.” Guardian.co.uk. 8 Mar 2001. Web. 11 October 2014
There is a strong belief that Islam and politics are directly tied. They are tied in the sense that the building blocks of the religion dictate how they ought to behave in the political environment. Through this mandatory follow up behavior that the religion delineates, many have come to believe that its teachings are a form of terrorism. Mandaville argues that what has challenged the Islamic link between politics and religion was the emergence of secularism, which went against the belief that politics and religion could go together. Islam has been a religion that has been accused of supporting terrorist activities in the world. Different assumptions have been brought up to understand better the linkages between what really lies behind the Islam religion and politics. Peter Mandaville argues that Islam is dynamic and that it has changed over time; situated within time and politics.
Islamophobia has become a new topic of interest among social sciences, political leaders and media commentators. People amongst society have developed this phobia towards Islamic religion and people. It has become a novel “form of racism in Europe and American based on discrimination ...
Ball, T. And Dagger, R. (2009) Ideals and Ideologies: A Reader. 7th edition. London: Pearson Longman.
In both given articles, “The Roots of Muslim Rage” by Bernard Lewis, and “The Roots of Muslim Rage Revisited” by Nicolaas J.E. van der Zee, argue about the enhancement of the Muslim fundamentalism with different perspectives; however, I believe that Lewis’ view may be quiet misleading to the actual perception. Lewis indicates that Muslim fundamentalism is conceived through the Muslim community’s oppression and dissatisfaction with the West’s political involvement, as well as “Islam is a source of aggression” . In defiance of Lewis’ opinion, the word ‘Islam’ comes from the word peace as well as the will of submission to God. The notion of aggression and violence that Lewis conceptualizes to be the headline of Islam does not have any supporting
F. Hasan, Asma Gull (2000). American Muslims; The New Generation. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.