A Student and a Professor Analyze the Portrayal of Muslims in Political Cartoons
Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy. By Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg. Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
When Gabriel Greenberg handed in his honors thesis on the portrayal of Islam in American political cartoons, he was expecting a good grade, not a book deal.
Published last September, Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy is every undergraduate thesis-writer’s dream come true; a full-fledged collaboration between Greenberg and his advisor, Wesleyan University religion professor Peter Gottschalk. Since Greenberg’s graduation in 2004, they have worked together on the manuscript, editing and re-working until Islamophobia was complete. The book examines American political cartoons, exploring how the visual language of veils, tumbling towers, and scimitar-wielding jihadists helps spread an irrational fear of Islam.
“This book is important for people to read right now. In terms of both foreign policy and here at home, we are heavily affecting the lives of Muslims,” says Greenberg. “Our thoughts are impacted by the media. It is important to have a keen perspective, to know the history of a situation, and to understand other people’s religions so that we don’t end up blindly following the media or governmental policies.”
In the midst of the War on Terror, when many Americans believe that Islam and the West are inherently antagonistic to one another, Islamophobia explores how this perception draws on the perpetuation of century-old stereotypes. Greenberg and Gottschalk argue that stereotypes are reflected and reinforced in the media through political cartoons.
“Political cartoons are a lens to view how a community presents certain ideas,” says Greenberg. “They reinforce public opinions and reflect the audience’s beliefs. They are unique because cartoon artists try to get across a point in a very limited space, which forces them to utilize stereotypes and generalizations. These can be revealing.”
In analyzing the political cartoons, Greenberg and Gottschalk find that Islam is often portrayed as being incompatible with Western values. In reality, most Muslims lead lifestyles similar to secular Americans. They write, “Almost all Muslims live under civil laws fashioned after Western models and relatively few seek to replace these with sharia…The concerns of Muslims; whether they live in Damascus, Delhi, or Detroit; regarding their children’s exposure to Hollywood violence or their loss of jobs to an increasingly globalized market do not differ substantially from those of non-Muslim Americans.”
Today, Greenberg is studying at a yeshiva in Israel. He plans to move back to the U.S. to attend rabbinical school next fall, and hopes to continue to confront misperceptions about Muslims in his new life in the rabbinate.
“I believe in mutual respect among peoples,” he says. “That is something I try to put across in the book and that is something I see myself trying to teach as a leader, as a rabbi.”
