Frames, forums and Facebook: interpreting British Muslim understandings of post-7/7 militarist media narrative

This chapter examines the creation and manipulation of specific and frames by Muslims in the UK to understand and respond to dominant media narratives in the period after the London bombings. Personal contributions to virtual discussion spaces illustrate the ways in which the process of ‘framing’ is both an act of rejection of alternative understandings, and an emotional attachment to distant concepts and experiences. Here, contributions by and between Muslims in a range of open and in ethno-religious-specific virtual spaces reveal a variety of different frames through which new and changing media narratives could be understood and addressed. These are explored further using ethnographic and interview data collected over a period of 4 years in 3 cities in the UK. It is suggested that a significant context for the framing process in relation to post 7/7 narratives of militarism and conflict is that of the city. In this respect, key frames are reviewed in light of contemporary local narratives of inter- and intra-ethnic conflict, and developing organised and transitory responses to images of war and conflict by Muslims within these cities.