Culture and Perception Paper: Islamic Culture

Culture and Perception
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Culture and Perception
Islamic culture
Zimmermann (2015) defines culture as the shared characteristics of a particular group of people, including social behaviors, religion, art, literature, music, and cuisine. Cultures are of different sizes and can either be in the same geographical location or widespread. Islamic culture is a religious culture. It represents the standard practices of Muslim people. Cultural identity refers to the feeling of belonging to a group of people (Zimmermann, 2015). Islamic culture is united by the Islamic religion, one of the oldest and most prominent religions globally, and Christianity. Striphas (2015) argues that cultural identity is a subsection of the broader communication theory of identity, which outlines four major cultural frames, including the enactment of communication, personal frame, communal, and relationship frames. These frames define the identity of a culture.
The Muslim culture uses Arabic literature as the primary language of communication, although members have other secondary languages provided by their native cultures. Identity is represented in the communication language because all Muslims worldwide use the same Arabic literature while communicating. Various values that unite the Muslims are promoted and passed on to other generations through language and communication. These values include fasting during Ramadan, giving to the poor, praying to Allah, and pilgrimage to Mecca.
Islamic culture is founded on a strong societal and social system. The Quran stresses the importance of collecting morality in justice systems, solidarity, compassion, fairness, brotherhood, and freedom of choice, among others. It is another factor that identifies Islam culture. These vital values are evident in the culture since Muslims worldwide are often very welcoming and merciful (Huda et al., 2020). Muslims, however, have been stereotyped for a long as terrorists. It is a vice most people have been made to believe, yet it is not true. Anybody can be a terrorist, and Islam does not encourage terrorism.
Islam has a unique architecture that identifies and differentiates it from other religious cultures. Roman, Chinese, Indian, and Persian influenced the first Muslim architecture. There are unique building form and decoration of surfaces using geometric and interlaced patterned ornaments and Islamic calligraphy (Khaki & Abad, 2015). Unique, huge Islamic architectural buildings include mosques, tombs, forts, and palaces. These buildings are unique and identify Muslims anywhere, such that a Muslim visiting a new place can identify himself with them.
Symbolic representation of Islamic culture via US media and research findings
The media often shape how people perceive a certain culture (Lule, 2018). The function of media is to represent reality in situations, just like scientific or humanistic research findings. However, in Islamic Culture, media and research findings have elicited a mixed reaction and representation of the culture.
US Media representation
The United States has been at war with terrorists for a long time. The US is a primary target for terrorists mainly becau...