Gud akhbar : En didaktiskt analys av islams framställning i läroböcker för gymnasiets religionskunskap 1

Critical studies of upper secondary text books in religion is a popular essay topic for soon to be teachers in Swedish universities. In particular the study of the portrayal of Islam in said textbooks, using Edward Saids well discussed oriental studies as a foundation. Thus, there are a lot of earlier essays and works showing similar results: that Islam and muslims tend to be ”othered” by being portrayed as a homogenous tradition and a homogenous group of people. This study also uses Saids oriental studies as at theoretical standpoint, but also the concept of religious literacy. By using qualitative content analysis this study has come up with similar results as many other essays. The main difference is the way the study shows how muslims are being ”othered”. By focusing on the textbooks usage of the word ”Allah” - the arabic word for ”God” - and how muslims are portrayed, the results show that muslims tend to be portrayed not only as a homogenous group, but as one with a specific God, different from the Judeo-Christian one. The results also show that certain phenomena that the different religions have in common tend to be left out when describing one or the other. All these tendencies combined might give the students a religious literacy constituted of facts and representations of islam characterized by the discourse Edward Said called orientalism.