110: Islam and the Media

In researching Stitched Glass, Kirk heard from a number of Muslims that they felt they had “a great religion, with the worst press.” In this section of the Islamic Tapestry, a television set can be seen with an image on its screen. The image has three aspects – it is in the shape of a spherical bomb (a lit fuse can be seen at the upper left), the crescent and star of Islam are incorporated into this shape, as is the globe. Kirk talks to Dr. Katherine Bullock about the poor treatment Islam often receives in Western Media. 

“You know that famous saying, ‘if it bleeds, it leads.’ There’s a need nowadays for clicks on the website, so there needs to be the thing that attracts the most attention, which unfortunately in human nature tends to be the negative things... So human nature likes and is attracted to the sensational, to the extreme, to the exotic. And these sound bites of Muslims doing those things fit perfectly into that need.” – Dr. Katherine Bullock