Lal Masjid Siege: Complexities and Framing (2008)

Undergraduate: Jabeen Ahmad

Faculty Advisor: Patricia Sawin
Department: Anthropology

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On July 3, 2007, months-long tensions between the Pakistani government and the inhabitants of a mosque and school complex in Islamabad ended in violence as gunfire erupted between security officials and militants in an event that later became known as the Lal Masjid Siege. In Islamabad and the Western world, the news media framed the event as yet another isolated incident of radical Muslims undermining the state and praised the government for taking action against the militants by storming the mosque. Media reports portrayed the siege as a simple matter of right and wrong, but the siege was much more complex. A distinct set of historical, religious, and political factors brought the militants and the government into conflict with each other at this particular time and place. By examining articles published in The Dawn, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and The New York Times, this thesis explores the complexities excluded and the frames employed in media coverage of the Lal Masjid Siege. It also compares media coverage with the author's own experiences in Islamabad during the siege and analyzes the prevalence of dominant discourses on political violence in the news media. By raising certain ideas to importance, frames influence audiences to think, feel, and decide in a particular way. In the case of the Lal Masjid Siege, media framing created a perceived problem of Islamic extremism rather than addressing the real issues of government corruption and widespread poverty in Pakistan.