A Fresh New Look at a Misunderstood Issue

A lot of western media contains stereotypical and misinformed information about Muslims. This seems to have been more the case since the events of 9/11. Muslims are represented in contemporary western media as inferior, premodern and violent, often being regarded as terrorists, or queue jumpers in some situations. On the contrary, westerners are usually depicted as superior, modern and enlightened, which classes them in a hegemonic position. Many academics, journalists and enthusiasts have written about these prejudices, but seems as though they have been of little help in educating the masses about the reality of Muslims. People simply continue to see them as dangerous and inhumane, and find it difficult to relate.

However, Sandra Canas has written an article that takes a different approach to discussing this issue. In her piece entitled, ‘The Little Mosque On the Prairie: Examining (Multi) Cultural Spaces of Nation and Religion”, Cansas does a brief analysis of the Canadian satire “Little Mosque On the Prairie”. Within her article she highlights the prejudices, assumptions and stereotypes made about Muslims, and explains how the show uses satire and comedy to raise important points about the struggles of Muslims in a contemporary western context. For example, the show covers the struggle Muslims endure to raise good Muslim children while also allowing them to adapt to a new environment. This is a particularly difficult task in countries where Muslims are outcast and treated as lesser citizens. Similarly, the show uses satire to deal with the grossly misunderstood issue of polygamy in the Muslim religion.

Apart from highlighting controversial and difficult subjects with the use of comedy, the show also includes many symbolic nuances. For example, Canas explains that the Mosque in the show is inside an Anglican Parish. She suggests that this emerges as a contradictory cultural space where a variety of struggles unfold. While instances like these are not directly discussed in the show, they create another layer in order to humorously tackle this otherwise gloomy and misrepresented issue.

Below is an exerpt from one of the scenes that Canas explains in her article. 

Source: Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd73S4mZA5s, 2006

The Little Mosque On the Prairie provides a fresh and humorous method of addressing an otherwise complex and shameful issue. It reflects Muslims as they are, and as a result positions them as simply the same as everyone else. Being a Muslim does not make you a terrorist. 

Canas, Sandra. (2008). ‘The Little Mosque On the Prairie: Examining (Multi) Cultural Spaces of Nation and Religion’, Cultural Dynamics, Sage Publication,  pp 195 - 211

* My spiritual environment *

This week I read ‘Spiritual revelation in wilderness under down under’ by Peter Ashley and he really made a good point as to the role that the environment and nature play in individual spirituality. He also noted that this role could be reversed as the idea of spirituality in important in the protection and cultivation of the environment. The important message, for me, in this paper was the significance of creating a wholesome and sacred relationship with the environment, in which both the human and natural world can benefit. He notes that, wildlife and its protection are “essential to maintain the mental and spiritual balance of the people”. Unfortunately, Ashley continued by explaining that, “the value of spirituality in the environment has not been fully appreciated or understood in Australia”.

As I was reading this article, there was one place that I was thinking of as my little ‘spiritual oasis’ I guess you could call it. My family has a small house upon a hill at Coolum Beach. You can just see the water through the trees and it is away from the hustle and bustle of normality for me. Apart from it being a visually beautiful environment, its about so much more than that. Ashley seems to focus on the visual environment in his article, and how this inspires certain emotions in people, but my experiences encompass an array of different feelings. For example, the feeling of a cool breeze, the sounds of trees rustling and birds singing and certain smells of eucalyptus. When these aspects are experienced together, they create something that is spiritual and relaxing for me. Therefore, it is not simply about a beautiful environment, but the whole experience.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sunshine_coast_02.jpg

A little note of progress ~

From all the weekly readings in WRIT2011 so far, there has been one that has really stood out to me: Mara Einstein’s piece entitled ‘The evolution of religious branding’. What I found fascinating about this article was the was that Einstein analyzed particular advertisement champagnes and websites belonging to different religious denominations. She paid particular attention to Scientology and the Mormon Church. It was really interesting to critically reflect upon the marketing techniques that religious groups use, as it seems almost contradictory that the spiritual organizations feel the need to preach their ideas on a mass scale in order to recruit members.

So as I have been thinking about these ideas, I realized that I wanted to take some of Einstein’s ideas, and focus them into my final piece of assessment for WRIT2011. It’s all still a bit hazey in my head at the moment, but I would really like to focus on two different advertisement campaigns or websites (or both) and look in detail at the marketing techniques and media ideas they use, and why they feel the need to do this. For me, it seems like such a perfect fit as I am currently in my final year of a media studies, communications and religion degree.

Hopefully I can refine my ideas a little more, and find some examples that are really exciting to look at. Lets see what happens!

Praise the iPhone!

Reading about ‘How the iPhone became divine’, an article by Heidi Campbell and Antonio La Pastina, really makes you see how similarly we treat the newest technological innovations and religious faith. At times, we are more motivated by the likes of a new iPhone or computer device, and what it can contribute to our lives, rather than what spirituality and religion can serve us with. Maybe its because new media is a physical thing rather than just serving our inner needs? Maybe it is an issue of being a superficial society that is obsessed with consumerism. Or are we just becoming so manipulated and dependent upon these technologies that without them we think we would be nothing?

Source: Jerry Bowles - Human Capital League at http://www.humancapitalleague.com/Home/8036

The article raises the example of ‘Mac Fandom’ as a religious like cult. Steve Jobs as a Christ figure and Bill Gates as the Devil (pp. 1195). In this situation, Campbell and La Pastina suggest that people are infusing technologies with religious metaphors. While in some situations a fascination with Apple products may simply be an issue of brand loyalty, there are definitely situations when this loyalty becomes more an instance of sacralising Mac devotion.

However, among all these new emerging instances of religious like worship, comes some critiques. Campbell and La Pastina explain that hyping up an item such as the Jesus Phone creates the possibility for critique of its infallibility once limitations to the technology are identified. Positioning these items as ‘God like’ or ‘sacred’ gives it a sort of rhetorical power. While this hype may seem a positive notion for promoting a new product like the iPhone, it also creates new avenues for criticism and setbacks.

Is this a modern situation of a gradual shift towards being technology dependent? Or is this actually an example of devout following of particular technological companies, and what they seek to create? What is likely to happen down the track? Will we realise that our fascination with technology is creeping into every aspect of our lives? Is this necessarily a bad thing? Or part of our human process? We will just have to wait and see what the Gods have in store!

Campbell, Heidi & La Pastina, Antonio (2010). ‘How the iPhone became divine: new media, religion and the intertextual circulation of meaning’, New Media Society

Branding and Marketing Religion

Mara Einstein writes about the use of branding and marketing in a religious context in her article ‘The Evolution of Religious Branding’. She suggests that religious institutions such as the Church of Scientology and the United Methodist Church use marketing to boost their reputation and reposition traditional denominations (331).

As new media technologies, such as television and especially the Internet, provide ‘spiritual alternatives’ the traditional church is suffering. Nowadays, worship, prayer and even rituals such as communion and baptism can be performed in an online context. Not only is this format of modern ‘churchgoing’ convenient and effortless, but, as Einstein (2011) notes, it also allows worshippers to try a number of different platforms of worship in order to find an online church that suits their changing and growing needs (332).

However, some people, such as Hutchings (2010) argue that ‘shopping around’ online creates a lack of solidarity that goes against the traditional Christian commitment of belonging to a single, local church community.

Therefore, as these new issues emerge, so too does a need for traditional religious institutions to ‘rebrand’ and market themselves for a changing society. Einstein (2011) suggests that churches are revising their “product” (shorter, more entertaining services) in order to capture the attention of followers and boost participant numbers (332). This ‘branding’ also seeks to “increase awareness, change perceptions and generate sales” (Einstein, 2011, 332).

This is particularly evident when considering the marketing tactics of the Church of Scientology. Einstein (2011) even recognizes that the Church of Scientology uses a sort of problem/solution-based advertising in order to position themselves in a positive and altruistic light (333).

One other example worthy of consideration is the recent marketing efforts by the Mormon Church. There were a series of advertisements depicting different ‘stories’ from typical Australian people. Each advertisement would have the person talking about their life, with the tag line at the end being “…and I’m a Mormon”. The Mormon Church then followed somewhat in the footsteps of the Church of Scientology by developing a well-equipped, eye catching website.

Its fascinating that religion, a phenomenon that seems so individualistic and spiritual, needs to fall at the feet of marketing and branding. However, at the same time, it also seems like a natural progression in a time when our lives is ruled by spin, smoke and mirrors and representations of reality.

Einstein, M 2011, The Evolution of Religious Branding, Social Compass, Sage Publication

Hutchings, T 2011, Contemporary Religious Community and the Online Church, Information, Communication and Society, Umea University, Sweden