NASHVILLE — As those who followed the 2010 Murfreesboro, Tennessee mosque opposition story know, American Muslims in the Bible Belt, defined mostly as the southeast part of the United States, have had it particularly rough in recent years for simply attempting to practice their religion.
But journalists covering issues involving the Muslim community also have had their own challenges to deal with, including a lack of experience with the issue, a lack of sources for first-hand knowledge on the faith, and immense pressure and criticism from readers and viewers who have been indoctrinated with anti-Muslim propaganda.
In an effort to educate journalists on key topics relating to the issue, the Middle Tennessee State School of Journalism hosted a conference entitled “Covering Islam in the Bible Belt” from Aug. 21-23 in Nashville, which was made possible through a grant from the McCormick Foundation. Conference events were held at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University.
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| Panelists at a ‘Covering Islam in the Bible Belt’ event in Nashville (from left) Imam Mohamed, Dr.Rashid Ahmad, Imam Ossama Bahloul of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Dima Sbenaty, and Hala Zein-Sabatto speak at a session titled ‘Getting to Know the Muslim Community’ with journalists. PHOTOS: Nick Meyer/TAAN |
Journalists from 22 different media outlets ranging from The Miami Herald to the Associated Press joined in on the conference, which featured presentations on topics such as how to “Acknowledge Your Bias and Improve Your Coverage” given by Butch Ward, managing director of the Poynter Institute; and the “First Amendment, Religious Freedom and National Security” given by Asma Uddin, founder of AltMuslima.com and an international law attorney.
The first day and a half of the conference was filled with fruitful discussions as journalists asked a wide variety of questions to panelists and learned more about the issues American Muslims are concerned about.
The tenor of the conference took a turn for the worse on the night of Monday, August 22, however, as the First Amendment Center hosted a public, televised forum entitled “Will Islamic Law Ever Be a Part of the U.S. Legal System?”
An audience of about 80 people included a handful of supporters of panelist Dr. Bill Warner, the founder of the Center for the Study of Political Islam, as he debated Islamic law expert Umbreen Bhati from the University of Michigan and the Los Angeles-based website Islawmix.com.
Warner, a former scientist who also uses the name Bill French, has a following in the area as an author and producer of videos that paint Islam as a violent movement. His supporters became loud and disruptive, accusing Bhatti and fellow panelist Saleh M. Sbenaty, a Muslim engineer from MTSU, of lying as they explained the compatibility of Islam and the Constitution and experiences as a Muslim in Tennessee, respectively.
Moderator Gene Policinski also related stories to the audience about previous concerns that Catholic canon law would work its way into the U.S. legal system as Catholics began entering the United States, which turned out to be merely speculation and fear. Policinski tried to calm down certain members of the crowd but eventually some became restless.
“The Middle East is on fire because of Islam and so is Europe; it won’t happen here,” shouted one audience member. “Islam is a military operation against the United States…you people are a joke.”
The unwelcoming response was a glimpse of the type of discrimination the Muslims of Murfreesboro faced last year as they attempted to build a mosque.
Sbenaty said he and other Muslims had lived in peace in the city for about 30 years before the mosque controversy erupted, which has since caused some cases of discrimination and suspicion in the area.
Reporter dishes on South’s anti-Islam movement
Warner and others of his ilk had been discussed earlier in the day by Bob Smietana, a religion writer for The Tennessean in Nashville. Smietana has spent many months researching key players in the anti-Islam movement in the southeast part of the country, particularly in Tennessee, and relayed some of his findings to the audience.
“Southern Christians feel that they’re losing their homefield advantage, and now they’re becoming suspicious,” he said.
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| Moderator Gene Policinski, senior VP of the First Amendment Center, engineer Saleh Sbenaty, Islamic Law scholar Umbreen Bhatti, and Bill Warner of the Center for Study of Political Islam held a public discussion on Islamic Law and the U.S. legal system. While most of the audience was civil, a small group of Warner supporters became loud and disruptive prompting Policinski to calm them down at various points. |
They’ve produced books, movies, TV shows and blogs in order to push a message of fear by selectively quoting Islamic hadiths completely out of context or with no context at all in order to push their viewpoints.
Their game plan according to Smietana is to sell the idea that Islam is a political system that should be illegal, that there is a “stealth jihad” movement against the United States, and that Muslims are “near enemies,” meaning that they are taught to appear friendly while deceiving others about their true nature.
Among those he said were part of the movement are Act! For America’s Frank Gaffney, David Goubatz, writer of the book ‘Muslim Mafia,’ and Warner, among others.
Members eventually pushed for a Tennessee anti-shari’a style bill in the state that had the language “shari’a” removed, but conservatives and others eventually came out against it, fearing that they could potentially be targeted for building a church or engaging in certain other religious practices as well.
Smietana said that the small, vocal anti-Islam crowd should be taken seriously by supporters of religious freedom.
“These people have ideas, money and organization,” he said.
“The temptation is to call them Islamophobes and distance ourselves from them, but the word I use is contempt…they don’t even want to talk about (the real issues and believe Muslims are taught to lie), how do you deal with that ideology?”
Tennessee Muslims, imam recount experiences
In a Wednesday, August 23 panel of six, moderated by Poynter’s Joe Grimm, the former Detroit Free Press recruiter, and The Arab American News Publisher Osama Siblani, Tennessee Muslims including Imam Ossama Bahloul of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro and two young women spoke on their experiences in Tennessee.
Surprisingly, the common refrain among them was that Murfreesboro is a welcoming place outside of the extremists who opposed the mosque and burned some of its construction equipment.
“The majority of people here are fine, some people are radical and the media tries to make it a big deal,” Bahloul said.
A poll presented by Jason Reineke of MTSU also showed that 70% of Tennesseans believed that Muslims should not be profiled, just one of numerous results showing that Muslims have support in the region despite the vocal nature of the groups pushing an anti-Islam agenda.
Bahloul also offered tips to reporters for engaging and learning about Muslim communities in their areas. He also said that the mosque still faces challenges but is moving along slowly. Bahloul added that Muslim communities can do a better job of reaching out, although many are still wary of the media potentially twisting stories around.
Meanwhile, media at the conference had overwhelmingly favorable opinions of the conference according to organizer and MTSU journalism professor Phil Loubere, who called it a success.
Many journalists were grateful for the chance to learn about the issues in-depth for the first time.
“The conference gave me a better, wide-ranging view…of how Muslims have been unfairly targeted by some as being just evil, and it’s undeserved,” said Mitch Mitchell of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“It was enlightening, I had not thought of it but there are many similarities between what Muslims and African Americans have had to go through, especially in the south,” said Doug Davis of the News Journal newspaper of Murfreesboro.
“There is a major lack of understanding, and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Editor’s note:
Both the writer and The Arab American News Publisher Osama Siblani attended the three-day conference and related their experiences with journalists and organizers in Nashville. They helped educate fellow participants both in group and one-on-one settings on the misconceptions surrounding American Muslims and Arabs as well as the city of Dearborn and the myth that it is under shari’a law.
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