Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam and the War of Ideas: America, Islam and the War of Ideas

by Lawrence Pintak

There exists today a tragic rift between Americans and the world’s Muslims. Yet in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, there was widespread sympathy for the U.S. throughout the Muslim world. This book explores what happened. It examines the disconnect that leads Americans and Muslims to view the same words and images in fundamentally different ways. Partly a result of a centuries-old 'us' against 'them' dichotomy, the problem is exacerbated by an increasingly polarised media and by leaders on both sides who either don't understand or don't care what impact their words and policies have in the world at large.

Journalist-scholar Lawrence Pintak, a former CBS News Middle East correspondent, argues that the Arab media revolution and the rise of 'patriot-journalists' in the US marginalized voices of moderation, distorting perceptions on both sides of the divide with potentially disastrous results.

Built on the author's extensive journalistic experience, the book will appeal to policymakers, students of media studies, Middle East studies and Islamic studies, and general current affairs readers.

Genres: Nonfiction

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 2006

About the author

Lawrence Pintak has spent his life grounded in facts while fascinated by the ethereal. An award-winning former CBS News Middle East correspondent with a PhD in Islamic Studies, Pintak has been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism for three decades and is an avid student of the perennial truths at the core of the world’s religions.
The author of seven books at the intersection of religion, media, and policy, his reporting and analysis on religion and international affairs has been published by The New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, and many of the world’s leading media organizations. He also wrote about Buddhism and Eastern traditions for Shambhala Sun/Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, Beliefnet.com and others before 9/11 drew his focus back to the Middle East. Pintak’s 2019 book, America & Islam, was a finalist for the Religion News Association award for Religion Reporting Excellence. A second edition, including the Gaza war, will be released in October.
Pintak served as founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University , dean of the Graduate School of Media and Communications at The Aga Khan University in East Africa, director of the Arab world’s leading media training center in the years leading up to the Arab Spring, and helped establish Pakistan’s Centre for Excellence in Journalism. He was named a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2017 for “extraordinary service to the profession of journalism” around the world.

Reviews

[Matt Flynn]

the media is bad (straight from a member of the media)