Text Analysis of How Muslim or Islam Represented Negatively in Robert Spencer's Article Muslim, Our Natural Allies?

ABSTRACT

Tugas Akhir ini mengupas cara pandang Robert Spencer terhadap Islam atau Muslim. Islam atau Muslim digambarkan negatif. Dalam artikel yang berjudul Muslim, Our Natural Allies?, baik Jihad maupun Sharia atau hukum Islam digambarkan sebagai sesuatu yang buruk.

Teori yang saya gunakan adalah teori Critical Discourse Analysis dari van Dijk. Van Dijk membagi tiga tahapan analisis: makro, meso, dan mikro. Akan tetapi, dalam tugas akhir saya hanya akan menggunakan mikro analisis. Mikro analisis memiliki tiga aspek yaitu analisis macrostructure, microstructure, dan

superstructure.

Dalam macrostructure analysis terungkap bahwa dalam artikel ini ada dua hal penting yaitu: kekerasan Jihad dan ketidakadilan Sharia. Dalam

macrostructure analysis, representasi negatif terhadap Islam atau Muslim belum

terlihat. Oleh karena itu saya melanjutkan analisis saya dengan microstructure

analysis yang membahas teks melalui lexicon. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa

Islam atau Muslim digambarkan negatif oleh Robert Spencer. Sedangkan melalui

superstructure analysis terlihat bahwa artikel Robert Spencer ini terbentuk dari

sebuah skema yang terdiri atas tiga bagian yaitu: the statement, the argument, dan

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...i

ABSTRACT ... ii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Background of the Study ... 1

Statement of the Problem ... 3

Purpose of the Study ... 4

Method of Research ... 4

Organization of the Thesis ... 4

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK………..5

CHAPTER THREE: TEXT ANALYSIS OF HOW MUSLIM OR ISLAM IS REPRESENTED NEGATIVELY IN ROBERT SPENCER’S ARTICLE MUSLIM OUR NATURAL ALLIES? Macrostructure Analysis ... 10

Microstructure Analysis ... 12

Superstructure Analysis ... 22

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ... 26

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 30

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Nowadays discrimination case has been a serious problem in the world. Many countries have been trying to solve this problem. Yet, this issue is not easy to be handled. Many factors can cause discrimination. For example, it can be skin colours, ethnic groups, races or even religions. Sometimes those who practise discrimination assume that they are different from and better than other people. This becomes a logical reason for them to do discrimination.

People can express their discriminative attitude through their actions or they can do itin writing. Many writers write texts containing discriminative opinions. In this thesis I intend to analyze Robert Spencer’s way of thinking about Islam. For the source of data of my thesis, I will use Robert Spencer’s article which I searched in the Internet. This text is found in Robert Spencer’s own website. Robert Spencer is an American writer who specifically focuses on criticism toward Islam. Because of this, it is clear that he wants to discriminate Islam. He writes many books and articles which discriminate Islam.

In his books and articles he tends to give a negative representation toward Islam so that other people or the readers also asssume that Islam is as bad as he thinks. He has a perception that Islam with its culture, Sharia (Islamic law), and the people (Muslims), is something bad. This condition makes Islam marginalized because his writings help create the bad image of Islam.

Seeing that the discriminationcase is really interesting to be discussed, I choose this discriminationcase as my topic of discussion in my thesis. My thesis topic is a text analysis of representation of Islam in Robert Spencer’s article. I choose this topic because Robert Spencer’s article contains a biased societal problem, in which Islam is assumed and represented as something bad. In his article, Robert Spencer tries to discriminate Islam and wants to give a negative representation toward Islam. Considering that Robert Spencer’s article is biased and discriminative toward Islam, I find it interesting to analyze how Robert Spencer represents Islam in his article; in other words, how he gives a negative representation toward Islam in his article.

My thesis analysis belongs to Discourse Analysis (DA), one of the areas of linguistics. Furthermore, I will focus on the text analysis, whichis an analysis of a text. In doing the text analysis, I will usevan Dijk’s theory as my basic theory. I decide to use van Dijk’s theory because in my opinion, van Dijk’s theory is more systematic and it really helps me to analyze how Islam is represented by Robert Spencer and what discriminative elements are found in Robert Spencer’s article. In van Dijk’s theory, there are three levels which can be analyzed. They are the macro level, meso level and micro level. Macro level relates to the writer’s intention widely in writing a text. Micro level concerns more about the use of

language by the writer. The last level is meso level which constitutes one level between macro level and micro level. However, in this thesis I will limit the discussion to the micro level analysis only, which according to van Dijk contains three aspects, which are the macrostructure, the microstructure and the superstructure.

I believe that this topic is significant as people can be more critical in understanding a text. I hope my analysis can be useful and contribute something positive in the study of text analysis. Considering that a text sometimes tends to be discriminative, I believe that this topic is significant as people can be more critical in understanding the text. Therefore, we as the reader must be critical toward texts containing discriminative cases so that we can understand the writer’s real intention in writing the text. That is why I am really interested in discussing this topic because we are sometimes presented with wrong information and discriminative opinions presented by the writer, which makes us have wrong perception as well toward something.

(702 words)

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The problems that I will analyze in my thesis are as follows :

1. Based on the macrostructure analysis, how is Islam represented ? 2. Based on the microstructure analysis, how is Islam represented ? 3. Based on the superstructure analysis, how is Islam represented ?

1.3 Purpose of the Study This study is done

1. to find out how Islam is represented based on macrostructure analysis. 2. to find out how Islam is represented based on microstructure analysis. 3. to find out how Islam is represented based on superstructure analysis.

1.4 Method of Research

First I began by finding and reading the reference books and the theory related to the topic which I want to analyze. Then I searched for the text to analyze. After that I analyzed the text and finally I wrote the research report.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

I divide the thesis into four chapters. The first chapter is Introduction, which consists of five parts – Background of the Study, Statement of the Problems, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains Theoretical Framework, in which I elaborate some approaches to analyze the data. Chapter Three is the analysis. Chapter Four is Conclusion of the analysis. At the end of the thesis, I put Bibliography and Appendix.

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I will draw some concluding points which are based on my analysis in Chapter Three. In the previous chapter, I use van Dijk’s theory in analyzing the text.

In my analysis, I only analyze the micro level which consists of the macrostructure, the microstructure and the superstructure analyses. The macrostructure analysis is an analysis which focuses on the global meaning of the text. In other words, it focuses more on the topic of the text.

It has been explained in the previous chapter that Robert Spencer’s Muslims, Our Natural Allies? is an analytical exposition which consists of the thesis statement, the argument and the reiteration, which means that these three parts build the text as whole text.

As explained before, the global topic of the text can be found in the thesis statement and the reiteration, both of which contain Robert Spencer’s ideas about Islam which he wants to show to the readers. Therefore, by reading these two partsclosely I can clearly see Robert Spencer’s point of view towards Islam. Here

he wants to show that Islam through its Jihad and Sharia is something bad and dangerous.

Moreover, on the argument part, Robert Spencer shows two things which make Islam something bad and dangerous, which are Jihad and Sharia. In the text, Robert Spencer talks about these two things using negative words particularly, Jihad violence and Sharia injustice. He judges Jihad as something very cruel and that Sharia constitutes Islamic law which promotes injustice.

Personally, I disagree with this Robert Spencer’s opinion about Islam. Jihad is not something bad and cruel as Robert Spencer’s claim.On the contrary, it is something good. But we must really know the true meaning of Jihad.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, Jihad means striving or struggling in the sake of Allah (God). However, some western people have the wrong understanding of the true meaning of Jihad. They are misled to think that Jihad enforce terror, that it means killing people, self-bombing, crashing a plane into buidings, etc. Actually, Jihad has a good meaning. According to the Qur’an, there are many forms of Jihad, for example Jihad by heart, which means always believing in God, and Jihad by action which means praying five times a day, reading the Qur’an, fasting, helping other people, giving alms. Nevertheless, sometimes there is a misconception in understanding Jihad by action. This is supported by the statements from the terrorists who loudly claim that their actions are done for Jihad. That is why today the word Jihad becomes negative. As being shown in the text, Muslim women are forced to wear hijab. Here Robert Spencer claims that forcing women to wear hijab by threat is something very cruel. Even

sometimes many Muslim men will kill the women in the name of Jihad if they do not wear hijab, which means they do not follow Sharia (Islamic law). Actually what being shown by Robert Spencer in the text is the action from some extremists or terrorists. They clearly do the wrong action because in Islam killing people constitutes great sin.

In addition to Jihad, Robert Spencer explains about the injustice of Sharia (Islamic law) in the text. He mentions that the Islamic law is something intolerant and unfair. In the text it is shown that killing apostatesis right because it is same as killing people who deserve to die and therefore, the executor has no sin in doing that. This shows howintolerant and unfair the Islamic law is. However, it is a fact that many Muslimsuphold religious liberty. Theyalso respect other religions. Despite that fact, however, in his text Robert Spencer does not see it that way. He says thaton the one hand,there are many Muslims who respect the freedom in adhering any religion.On the other hand the law in Islam forbids Muslims to do apostasy.What’s more whoever does this will be killed. This clearly shows that the Islamic law does not support religious liberty.

In this terms of, I disagree with Robert Spencer. The reason is that in his text he only quotesother people’s statements without really understanding the meaning of those statements. For example, he quotes the prophet Muhammad’s words, who says “whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.” Here Spencer truly does not know the context of that statement, to whom the statement is given, what condition at that time and the most important thing is who says the statement. In Bukhari 9.84.57, the statement is made by Ibnu Abbas, who is one of close friends of the prophet, and the context is related to Atheists.

In the microstructure analysis, the lexicon of the text is dominant in showing

the writer’s opinion. That is why I focus more on lexicon in doing my analysis. In

the text, Robert Spencer uses many negative words to represent Islam. Remembering that Robert Spencer’s Muslims, Our Natural Allies? is analytical exposition, I can conclude that the use of negative words in the text functions to influence the readers to have the same opinion as the writer, which is Islam with its Jihad and Sharia (Islamic law) is something bad for the western world.

In the superstructure analysis, it is shown how a scheme builds the text. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Robert Spencer’s Muslim, Our Natural Allies? is an analytical exposition. So, the scheme which forms the text is arranged from the thesis statement, the argument and the reiteration.

To close this chapter, I would like to give suggestion for other researchers who are interested in doing Critical Discourse Analysis, especially text analysis

using van Dijk’s theory. I suggest they should be detailed and specific in

analyzing the text of their choice. They also have to be structured, which means that their analyses have to be neatly arranged so that the writer’s ideas can be seen clearly.

Seeing the factthat nowadays there are many texts which are blurred and inclined to be discriminative, we are demanded to be very critical towards a text. Therefore, I hope my analysis can give additional contribution to those who wish to do Critical Discourse Analysis.

TEXT ANALYSIS

OF HOW MUSLIM OR ISLAM IS REPRESENTED

NEGATIVELY IN ROBERT SPENCER’S ARTICLE

MUSLIM, OUR NATURAL ALLIES?

a thesis

submitted to the English Department of the Faculty of Letters

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the “Sarjana” degree

CYNDI CALESTA 1141031

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS

MARANATHA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY B A N D U N G

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On this opportunity, first of all I would like to give a praise wholeheartedly to Almighty God, who has given me His power and kindness so that I am able to finish my thesis. I realize that this thesis is far from a perfect work. Therefore, all suggestions and critics can be accepted in order to give additional knowledge for me to make improvement in the future.

I would also like to thank my supervisor, Bernadette Santosa, S.S., M.A who have given me a lot of help, suggestions, advice and attention during the period of thesis writing. Besides, I would like to thank:

1. Rizki Theodorus Johan, S.S., M.A, as the Head of the English Department of Maranatha Christian University.

2. Bernadette Santosa, S.S., M.A, as my academic counselor. 3. All lecturers, who have given knowledge during my studies.

4. My family, who always give me their prayers, support and love so that I always have high spirit in finishing my thesis.

5. All my friends, who always become the best friends and give me their support and prayers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts

Jihadwatch.org. (2014, February 6). Muslim, Our Natural Allies?, 6 February 2014, from

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/02/robert-spencer-in-frontpage-mag-muslims-our-natural-allies

References

Discourse.org. Ed. Teun A. van Dijk. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from

<http://www.discourse.org/.../Analyzing%20racism%20through%20discour se%20analysis.pdf>

Discourse.org. Ed. Teun A. van Dijk. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from

<http://www.discourse.org/.../Discourse%20and%20manipulation.pdf Gerot, L., & Wignell, P. (1994). Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Sydney:

Antipodean Educational Enterprises. Retrieved May 21, 2014.

Hornby, A. S. (Ed.8). (2010). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 25, 2016.

van Dijk, T. A. (2001). In Deborah Schiffirin, Deborah Tannen, Heidi E. Hemilton (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Malden, Massachusetts, USA: Blackwel Pubishers Inc. Retrieved May 14, 2014

27

Maranatha Christian University he wants to show that Islam through its Jihad and Sharia is something bad and dangerous.

Moreover, on the argument part, Robert Spencer shows two things which make Islam something bad and dangerous, which are Jihad and Sharia. In the text, Robert Spencer talks about these two things using negative words particularly, Jihad violence and Sharia injustice. He judges Jihad as something very cruel and that Sharia constitutes Islamic law which promotes injustice.

Personally, I disagree with this Robert Spencer’s opinion about Islam. Jihad is not something bad and cruel as Robert Spencer’s claim.On the contrary, it is something good. But we must really know the true meaning of Jihad.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, Jihad means striving or struggling in the sake of Allah (God). However, some western people have the wrong understanding of the true meaning of Jihad. They are misled to think that Jihad enforce terror, that it means killing people, self-bombing, crashing a plane into buidings, etc. Actually, Jihad has a good meaning. According to the Qur’an, there are many forms of Jihad, for example Jihad by heart, which means always believing in God, and Jihad by action which means praying five times a day, reading the Qur’an, fasting, helping other people, giving alms. Nevertheless, sometimes there is a misconception in understanding Jihad by action. This is supported by the statements from the terrorists who loudly claim that their actions are done for Jihad. That is why today the word Jihad becomes negative. As being shown in the text, Muslim women are forced to wear hijab. Here Robert Spencer claims that forcing women to wear hijab by threat is something very cruel. Even

28

Maranatha Christian University sometimes many Muslim men will kill the women in the name of Jihad if they do not wear hijab, which means they do not follow Sharia (Islamic law). Actually what being shown by Robert Spencer in the text is the action from some extremists or terrorists. They clearly do the wrong action because in Islam killing people constitutes great sin.

In addition to Jihad, Robert Spencer explains about the injustice of Sharia (Islamic law) in the text. He mentions that the Islamic law is something intolerant and unfair. In the text it is shown that killing apostatesis right because it is same as killing people who deserve to die and therefore, the executor has no sin in doing that. This shows howintolerant and unfair the Islamic law is. However, it is a fact that many Muslimsuphold religious liberty. Theyalso respect other religions. Despite that fact, however, in his text Robert Spencer does not see it that way. He says thaton the one hand,there are many Muslims who respect the freedom in adhering any religion.On the other hand the law in Islam forbids Muslims to do apostasy.What’s more whoever does this will be killed. This clearly shows that the Islamic law does not support religious liberty.

In this terms of, I disagree with Robert Spencer. The reason is that in his text he only quotesother people’s statements without really understanding the meaning of those statements. For example, he quotes the prophet Muhammad’s words, who says “whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.” Here Spencer truly does not know the context of that statement, to whom the statement is given, what condition at that time and the most important thing is who says the statement. In Bukhari 9.84.57, the statement is made by Ibnu Abbas, who is one of close friends of the prophet, and the context is related to Atheists.

29

Maranatha Christian University In the microstructure analysis, the lexicon of the text is dominant in showing

the writer’s opinion. That is why I focus more on lexicon in doing my analysis. In the text, Robert Spencer uses many negative words to represent Islam. Remembering that Robert Spencer’s Muslims, Our Natural Allies? is analytical exposition, I can conclude that the use of negative words in the text functions to influence the readers to have the same opinion as the writer, which is Islam with its Jihad and Sharia (Islamic law) is something bad for the western world.

In the superstructure analysis, it is shown how a scheme builds the text. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Robert Spencer’s Muslim, Our Natural Allies? is an analytical exposition. So, the scheme which forms the text is arranged from the thesis statement, the argument and the reiteration.

To close this chapter, I would like to give suggestion for other researchers who are interested in doing Critical Discourse Analysis, especially text analysis

using van Dijk’s theory. I suggest they should be detailed and specific in analyzing the text of their choice. They also have to be structured, which means that their analyses have to be neatly arranged so that the writer’s ideas can be seen clearly.

Seeing the factthat nowadays there are many texts which are blurred and inclined to be discriminative, we are demanded to be very critical towards a text. Therefore, I hope my analysis can give additional contribution to those who wish to do Critical Discourse Analysis.

TEXT ANALYSIS

OF HOW MUSLIM OR ISLAM IS REPRESENTED

NEGATIVELY IN ROBERT SPENCER’S ARTICLE

MUSLIM, OUR NATURAL ALLIES?

a thesis

submitted to the English Department of the Faculty of Letters

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the “Sarjana” degree

CYNDI CALESTA 1141031

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS

MARANATHA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY B A N D U N G

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On this opportunity, first of all I would like to give a praise wholeheartedly to Almighty God, who has given me His power and kindness so that I am able to finish my thesis. I realize that this thesis is far from a perfect work. Therefore, all suggestions and critics can be accepted in order to give additional knowledge for me to make improvement in the future.

I would also like to thank my supervisor, Bernadette Santosa, S.S., M.A who have given me a lot of help, suggestions, advice and attention during the period of thesis writing. Besides, I would like to thank:

1. Rizki Theodorus Johan, S.S., M.A, as the Head of the English Department of Maranatha Christian University.

2. Bernadette Santosa, S.S., M.A, as my academic counselor. 3. All lecturers, who have given knowledge during my studies.

4. My family, who always give me their prayers, support and love so that I always have high spirit in finishing my thesis.

5. All my friends, who always become the best friends and give me their support and prayers.

30

Maranatha Christian University

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts

Jihadwatch.org. (2014, February 6). Muslim, Our Natural Allies?, 6 February 2014, from

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/02/robert-spencer-in-frontpage-mag-muslims-our-natural-allies

References

Discourse.org. Ed. Teun A. van Dijk. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from

<http://www.discourse.org/.../Analyzing%20racism%20through%20discour se%20analysis.pdf>

Discourse.org. Ed. Teun A. van Dijk. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from

<http://www.discourse.org/.../Discourse%20and%20manipulation.pdf

Gerot, L., & Wignell, P. (1994). Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Sydney: Antipodean Educational Enterprises. Retrieved May 21, 2014.

Hornby, A. S. (Ed.8). (2010). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 25, 2016.

van Dijk, T. A. (2001). In Deborah Schiffirin, Deborah Tannen, Heidi E. Hemilton (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Malden, Massachusetts, USA: Blackwel Pubishers Inc. Retrieved May 14, 2014