Monotheistic Religions in the Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Monotheistic Religions in the Media - Essay Example Even as our perception of these religions is long-entrenched through insights gleamed from an early age, in a small degree the news media can continue to shape perception through the ways they structure culture and religion. This essay considers three such means of structuring religion through an analysis of articles on Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. In considering one way the media develops and implements a perspective on religion, an article from the Los Angeles Times is considered. The article ‘Islamists in Egypt seek change through politics’ presents a number of interesting perspectives on the nature of Islam. The article is indicating is interesting in that it considers the nature of radical Islam, yet contrasts it with a reimagined perspective that demonstrates some of the religion’s positive elements. In these regards, it considers former rebel Nageh Ibrahim who at one time had expressed a desire to create a large-scale Islamic state through blood-shed, who is now living in a high rise and, â€Å"has the soothing voice of a man who could lead a 12-step program on rejecting radicalism† (Fleishman 2010). The article indicates that the group Ibrahim headed at one point committed considerable acts of terror and violence in an effort to achieve these ends for the Islamic state. Within these regards, he is known to take contributed to the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, and the massacre at Luxor temple that contributed to the death of sixty-two people. After being imprisoned for twenty-four years, Ibrahim is demonstrated to have changed his radical stance. The article uses the story of Ibrahim’s life as a sort of metaphor on the nature of the changing nature of Islamic politics. In regards to Egypt, this philosophical slant is akin to a shift from Malcolm X like means of enacting change to Martin Luther King Jr’s stance of non-violent exchange. Ibrahim states, â€Å"Over the years†¦it became apparent th at violence harmed us and the image of Islam. The state could always hit us back harder than we could hit them† (Fleishman 2010). While the article indicates that radicalism is still occurring, the general consensus in terms of Egyptian politics is that this more political and less violent approach is the means towards significant change. In terms of a broader framing of Islam, the article presents a complex picture of the religion as embodying a variety of polls of political action – both extremism and modernism. The next article, ‘Rapper Finds Order in Orthodox Judaism in Israel,’ analyzed is from the New York Times and it considers the nature of rapper that has turned to Judaism. This is an intriguing investigation of Judaism as it challenges traditional assumptions of Jewish individuals as being of a certain ethnic class. In addition, the juxtaposition with rap also constitutes a clashing of socioeconomic classes that are generally separate aspects with in American society. The rapper in the article is Shyne, a protege of famed rap producer Puff Daddy. An interesting sidenote, Shyne served nine years in prison for opening fire at a club. Despite being raised as a troubled street hood in Brooklyn, Shyne states, â€Å"My entire life screams that I have a Jewish neshama,† he said, using the Hebrew word for soul† (Kraft 2010). This is an interesting presentation of the Jewish religion. While soul and street legitimacy have oftentimes been conclaves of African American art and culture, Shyne has made an interesting connection between these aspects and those of the Jewish religion. The article indicates that Shyne discovered Judaism during his time in prison, although he had been intrigued by Old Testament stories since an early age. While this article may constitute an outlier of