Islam i religionsboken : Framställningen av islam och muslimer i två religionsböcker för gymnasiet

The main objective of this research was to examine description of Islam in two different schoolbooks about religion. The rapport starts with an introduction of the subject and discusses the background of the topic. After the presentation, aims, and the questions I present my methods and material used in this research. Following the method and material is earlier research where I mention some of the previous rapports and results of researchers within the discourse. The theory used to investigate the text is postcolonial and the orientalism theory presented by Edward Said. The intention of the research was to answer if the books representation contributed to an oriental description of Islam and Muslims and to see how the text and pictures where used and structured. Similar researches have been presented earlier but this rapport handles a completely new book and a reedited book. The first book is written by Lars-Göran Alm and is called “Religionskunskap A” this book has been published before and is commonly used in schools all around Sweden. The other book is written by Olov Jansson and Linda Karlsson and is called “Religionskunskap A, en mosaik” and had its first release in 2009. The result shows that the book written by Alm represents a more oriental description and the text structure leaves the reader sometimes confused and wanting more. Alm chooses to bring up subjects like Islamism and circumcision of girls but both books mentioned a willingness of Shia Muslims to commit suicidal bombings. Alm left out more spiritual aspects like religious holidays and Sufism. The other book written by Jansson and Karlsson had some tendencies to an oriental description of Islam but not in the same extent as Alm. Jansson and Karlsson also gave a clearer representation of a Swedish context, which made the religion more present and not as distant as Alm. Both books used pictures to complement the text and in most cases in Alms book the pictures were images of places and persons in other continents and countries then Europe and Sweden