The Representation of Islam and Muslims in the Media.

The conference was opened by the Minister of Home Affairs Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar who delivered a keynote address focusing on the theme of the conference. The Minister said the conference is both critical and timely in view of the fact that Islam is the fastest growing religion and perhaps the most misunderstood religion especially in the West. He stressed that in the present postmodern time mass media have played and continue to play a significant role in asserting and sustaining stereotypical visions and conceptions about Islam and Muslims. “Evidently, this has given rise to a significant amount of confusion and distorted imagination in the mind of the public at large. Thus, labels such as jihadists, extremists, terrorists and fundamentalists are increasingly becoming more and more popular descriptions of Islam in both the mainstream and the non-mainstream media, particularly in the West,” he added.