American Coverage of Immigration, Islam, and Identity in the UK and the Netherlands

Poole, Elizabeth

Abstract

This article explores how American journalists cover religion in Europe, where issues of faith and church-state relations lead to differing interpretations of religio-ethnic news events, by analyzing U.S. newspaper coverage of the anti-Islamic Dutch MP Geert Wilders. A focus on Geert Wilders incorporates both the Netherlands and Britain into the analysis but also Europe more generally given that the case prompted a wider discussion of immigration and the place of Islam in European societies. After discussing the differing roles and perceptions of religion in the United States and Europe, the article considers the differing models of integration for immigrants on the two continents and demonstrates how this has played out in news coverage of Islam. An examination of the reporting of the Geert Wilders case shows how Islam in Europe is represented through a conflict frame that incorporates a discourse of immigration, cultural incompatibility, identity, liberalism, and freedom.

Citation

Poole, E. (2012). American Coverage of Immigration, Islam, and Identity in the UK and the Netherlands. In Oxford Handbooks Online (453-468). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195395068.013.0030

• Online Publication Date: Aug 29, 2012
• Publication Date: Nov 6, 2012
• Deposit Date: May 31, 2023
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 453-468
• Book Title: Oxford Handbooks Online
• ISBN: 9780195395068
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195395068.013.0030
• Keywords: religion, news, war, ethical issues, mass media, print, broadcast, religious traditions, religious press, American press