Muslims in the Bulgarian and the British Press: The Multifarious Image of the Religious Other

This book compares the ways in which the national media in two different countries construct (frame) and develop the image of the religious other, in this case Muslims in all their variety. Although it introduces concepts such as race and racism, otherness, Orientalism and Islamophobia, which may be familiar to the majority of readers, in this manuscript they serve the purpose of a comparative analysis which has not been done on the subject to date. The manuscript analyzes the thematic distribution of the articles, as well as the definitions, metaphors and stereotypes used, thus presenting a complete and diverse image of Muslims along with the similarities and differences in the thinking patterns employed by Bulgarians and British on the subject and expressed in the respective mainstream media. In this respect the manuscript fills a void in the scholarly literature on the ways the media discourses in two very different countries present the image of a religious group. Here we can even talk about the existing divide between East and West and the changing perception of the religious Other fostered by the general digitalization and free flow of information.

As English is an international language it undeniably makes access to information easier, however, there are not many culture specific studies presenting the current state of a problem or the analyses on that particular topic (the image of Muslims) in that international medium. Therefore, the manuscript aims at introducing English speaking scholars, students, media people, and generally everyone interested in the topic, to the Bulgarian way of seeing, depicting and talking about Muslims. As stated above, the manuscript draws parallels between the language used by the Bulgarian and the British media, thus providing a similar starting point as the majority of the potential readers are probably more familiar with the latter. In addition, scholars working extensively with other local cultures and/or media and resorting to English as a medium for the popularization of their research, can use the presented analytical frame to their specific analyses and contribute even further to the enrichment of the global data base on the topic.