Islamophobia or freedom of expression: Framing the Charlie Hebdo cartoon crisis 2020 in western and Muslim-majority media

The satirical depictions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the western media have garnered scholarly attention. However, only a few studies have explored their war and peace representations in Muslim-majority media. The current study aims to fill this gap by combining framing theory and the war and peace journalism approach to investigate to what extent western and Muslim-majority media framed this issue differently. Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach is adopted to analyse media frames. A two-month sample was collected from the 1 September 2020 to the 31 October 2020 from The Guardian and the New York Times (henceforth NYT ), along with two Muslim-majority media agencies, Ahram Online and Dawn . The current investigation showed that western and Muslim-majority media agencies are oriented towards war journalism in reporting Charlie Hebdo ’s cartoon crisis. Media on both sides were violence-oriented and elite-oriented, respectively, with no significant statistical differences. However, Muslim-majority media were statistically different by incorporating peace journalism in their reporting of the crisis, giving space for non-bureaucratic sources to express their views on the cartoon crisis, with the aim of promoting understanding and co-existence. Moreover, media on both sides have foregrounded terrorism frame in their reporting. Nevertheless, while Muslim-majority journalism framed the case as Islamophobia-oriented, western media framed it from the perspective of freedom of expression. This difference reflects the influence of cultural resonance, where Islamic values are resonant in Muslim societies, while western journalism focuses more on freedom of expression. This research recommends the de-westernization of journalism practices oriented towards ‘war journalism’ and negativity. De-westernization can lead to a more harmonious world of co-existence.