ABSTRACT
In Norway, the question of being a Muslim stands as a major border in identifying and classifying us from them. Norwegian media, in this regard, has been a scene of considerable debate on sociocultural and security challenges caused by Muslims. This chapter focuses on 13 individuals from Iran and Turkey, all with a Muslim background, and their reception of the ongoing Norwegian media practices on Islam and Muslims. The study then is a reception analysis in which participants read a chosen documentary on radical Islam aired on the Norwegian Broadcasting Channel (NRK). The study concludes that there is a marked distance between participants’ self-identification with Islam—as well as their understanding as Muslim—and what seemed to be the dominant discourse on Muslims in the Norwegian media in general, and in the chosen documentary in particular. Participants articulate significant variation concerning the ways they make sense of their religion of origin. At the same time, the trace of historical contexts they carry with them, seem to be present in their perception of Islam, and how they place themselves as Muslims. Meanwhile, in media practices there is a strong tendency to reduce individuals with Muslim backgrounds to a uniform category with qualities opposite to the Norwegian values and way of life.
