Representation of the Muslim Brotherhood by Al Arabiya and the BBC: The Construction of Political Islam as a Threat in the Public Imaginary

Abstract

Over the last century, two highly influential organizations have impacted politics and resistance in the Arab world: the Ba’ath Party and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood advanced the political dimension of Islam in the sense of a single community (Umma) that revolves around religion. This basic distinction has caused decades of ideological disputes and even, on some occasions, military confrontation. In this study, the media’s construction of the public image of the Muslim Brotherhood is analyzed. Two large outlets, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Al Arabiya, are contrasted. Using a qualitative approach, news stories from 2023 to 2025 are examined to determine how strategic narratives can influence the population’s perception of these groups. The study results reveal a considerable gap in reporting between the two. Al Arabiya presents the Muslim Brotherhood as a collapsed, radical terrorist group manipulating religion to gain power, while the BBC’s reporting is more neutral and subtler, demonstrating how media organizations manipulate certain terms and themes to shape narratives.

1. Introduction

In the last 100 years, two main political organizations have come to define decolonization and resistance ideology in the Arab world: the Ba’ath Party and the Muslim Brotherhood (Altaweel, 2019; Khalili & Bagheri Dolat Abadi, 2018). There have been other significant political organizations in the region with the capacity to mobilize the masses (Khatib & Lust, 2014; Ramadan, 2012); however, these two movements have had distinct power and influence in regard to defining post-colonialism and pan-Arabism regarding the concept of a unified Arab world. While the Ba’ath Party pushed for a pan-Arabist ideology that emphasized nationalism and secularism as a way of asserting modern state-building (Verre, 2020; Iliawi & Jalud, 2022), the Muslim Brotherhood has undertaken a more faith-driven approach, in which Islam is placed at the center of Arab unification as an aspiring ‘Umma’ (Boms & Aboubakr, 2021; Mitchell, 1993). Over the years, these very distinct approaches have led to important ideological and even violent clashes between the movements (Falah & Khoury, 2014; Kaplan, 2025).

An important aspect that has historically distinguished these movements is that while the Ba’ath Party was in power for a long period of time in places such as Iraq and Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood only exercised power very briefly in Egypt, despite the fact that it has been very present in many other societies. Specifically, between 2011 and 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood gained prominence in Egypt, sparking heated discussions about how it would influence Egypt’s future (Mirshak, 2023). Even after the overthrowal of President Mohamed Morsi, many scholars agree that the Muslim Brotherhood left behind an enduring and martyrized imaginary that regards the movement as an unfulfilled revolution (Rezaei, 2015; Unnikrishnan, 2019). This is in part because even before its ascent to power in the aftermath of the Arab Spring of 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been operating since the late 1920s, was already one of the most well-organized opposition forces in Egypt (Al-Anani, 2016; Zollner, 2009). The group had repeatedly challenged various regimes in power, most notably Mubarak’s.

However, since 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood has retreated politically, although it continues to clandestinely exert an influence in certain sectors of Arab societies (Virgili, 2024; Wagemakers, 2022; Salameh, 2021). To view the Muslim Brotherhood as a historically isolated phenomenon that somehow ended with the Arab Spring is to miss the point. Indeed, as some authors have highlighted, the role of the media in the Egyptian “Arab Spring” should be viewed not as a disruptive event but as an organic and intertwined continuum that is an extension of the configuration of the state–media–society relations that had developed in the preceding decades (Lavie & Yefet, 2022). These developments influenced the perception of the Muslim Brotherhood in various political contexts. This study, however, does not focus on the movement’s history, but on the selective representation, emphasis, and reinterpretation of political histories in the media, as seen in both BBC Arabic and Al Arabiya coverage. As a result, the analysis is based not on the political trajectory but upon the construction of meaning in the media reporting on political Islam.

Political Islam is not specific concept but rather a very broad notion that refers to the use of Islamic principles, values, symbols, and religious authority to mobilize and shape public imagination in relation to the type of political systems, public policy, governance, and social organization that should prevail in societies based on that faith. The key element of this notion is the concept of Sharia and its bastardized version in the West, where is referred to as “Sharia law”.

Political Islam encompasses a broad range of movements, parties, and ideologies that believe Islam should play a significant role in public and political life rather than being confined solely to personal faith and worship. Therefore, it cannot be considered a single ideology or homogenous concept with a universal definition. Instead, it encompasses diverse strands ranging from moderate movements to militant extremist groups seeking to establish a radical version of the Caliphate (Ghannouchi, 2016; Sayyid, 2014). In contemporary political science, political Islam is best understood as a spectrum of movements and ideas that seek to connect Islamic beliefs with political authority, governance, and public life.

As many authors have emphasized, particularly after the attacks of 11 September 2001, political Islam is often framed in the media through the lens of security, terrorism, and extremism. News coverage frequently focuses on militant organizations such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, or other violent groups, which can lead audiences to broadly associate political Islam with violence. Common frames include terrorism and radicalization, threats to national security, and religious extremism in the context of immigration and integration challenges (Hashmi et al., 2021).

2. Importance of the Problem

It is important to acknowledge that legacy media have sustained particular strategic narratives that have influenced public imaginary in relation to the Brotherhood movement. Certainly, the public imaginary outside the region and among the non-Arabic speakers in the region has been broadly defined by the media (Abunajela & Mellor, 2016; Allen, 2012; Younis & Younis, 2012; Ameli et al., 2007). These media narratives around the Brotherhood have oscillated between initial portrayals of it a leader of decolonization and a more negative framing of it as a terrorist organization. What is common among most of these depictions is the framing of political Islam (Raja, 2024; Rashid, 2024). In fact, the role that media representations play in shaping the public imaginary is pivotal in the context summarized above. The aim of this study is to identify and explain the nature of strategic narratives in the media in relation to political Islam. To do so, we ask if existing structural bias in specific news media outlets can explain differentiated news coverage of political Islam and how it may affect the construction of the public imaginary.

To address these questions, we comparatively analyzed how the BBC and Al Arabiya have been instrumental in documenting the construction of the public imaginary regarding the Muslim Brotherhood. This comparative analysis allowed us to assess the commonalities and differences between the two media outlets, which operate in different settings. One is based in Saudi Arabia and the other in the UK, although it has bureaus in the Arabian region.

Overall, we know that the majority of the mainstream Anglo-Arab media continues to portray this movement as a terrorist organization, with a predominantly negative framing (Abunajela & Mellor, 2016). Moreover, the data shows that both Al Arabiya and the BBC tend to portray the group as an extremist political organization, although the BBC does so with a more nuanced approach. We seek a rationale that might explain these differences in framing as well as a theoretical explanatory framework that focuses on strategic narratives in relation to political Islam (Freedman, 2015; Miskimmon et al., 2013).

3. Relevant Scholarship

Anglo-Arab media have been consistently found to create different narratives surrounding the Muslim Brotherhood, a pattern that is common to media representations of political Islam (Mellor, 2017; Abunajela & Mellor, 2016; Ameli et al., 2007). In the field of media and communication studies, the Muslim Brotherhood is rarely just a political entity to be reported on; rather, it is a discursive entity that generates meanings of extremism, governance, and religion. Political Islam has typically been defined as a sociopolitical ideology, as well as a competing media-sphere category that is constructed through editorial selection and emphasis. Thus, in the media, the framing process involves focusing on certain elements of reality to shape audiences’ interpretation and definition of reality (Van Dijk, 2013; Gee, 2014). Political Islam, then, defines movements that look to embed Islamic values in the political sphere, not just the religious sphere (Abunajela & Mellor, 2016). Overall, media framing is a key aspect of the construction of public discourse about and understanding of political Islam.

In this media environment, the Muslim Brotherhood is regularly invoked as a political outsider, an enemy to security, and a legitimate political party (Mellor, 2017). Some describe it as a political and ideological movement, whereas others focus on its externalization as an Islamist group that has exclusionary or radical elements (Al-Suwaidi, 2022; Mellor, 2017). These representations are not merely descriptive but are linked to other “othering” processes through which the media tends to associate political Islam with instability, violence, or dogmatism. This implies that the media engages in not only factual reporting but also the production of interpretive frames that depict a contested and polarized political Islam.

The existing literature emphasizes that media representations of the Muslim Brotherhood fall within the broader framing of Islam by Western media, which still essentializes the phenomenology of issues and events taking place in that part of the world within categories of religion, politics, and security, as well as discursive regimes (Abunajela & Mellor, 2016; Said, 2008). The Arab and international media’s coverage of the Brotherhood also suggests this. For many years, scholarly works have provided consistent accounts of the divergent narratives emerging in Anglo-Arab’s media coverage in relation to the Muslim Brotherhood (Mellor, 2017; Abunajela & Mellor, 2016; Ameli et al., 2007). In most depictions of the group, it is presented as a political entity that advocates for Islamic governance. The movement is perhaps the most emblematic representation of political Islam, which sees itself as a response to the failures of secular ideologies—nationalism and socialism—to deliver true independence and prosperity (Abunajela & Mellor, 2016; Al-Anani, 2016). In terms of its own self-depiction and assertion of a strategic narrative, Mellor (2017) points out that the organization has developed its own communication strategies as an interpretive community that develops and disseminates its own ideology.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been described as an Islamist organization that aims to drive out foreigners and non-Muslims from Arabian countries to establish an Islamic civilization in the region (Al-Suwaidi, 2022; Mellor, 2017). Since its inception in 1928, the Brotherhood’s structure has evolved, and a stable hierarchy has been maintained since 1949 (Al-Anani, 2016). With connections throughout the Arab world, the Muslim Brotherhood maintains a strong presence in the region, in particular in Egypt (Mirshak, 2023). Branches of the Brotherhood have practiced both non-violent and violent resistance. The organization is committed to gaining power so it may implement socio-religious reforms that reflect the principals of Islam while opposing current regimes in the region, which the Brotherhood views as deeply corrupt Western proxies. Although many of its leaders have been given sanctuary in places such as Qatar, this radical and explicit stance explains why the movement has been broadly opposed in most Arabian regions (Ecanow & Wahba, 2025; Salman, 2021). As a result, one can expect that the overall media coverage will be mostly negative, strongly associating the group with violence.

The study is significant as it contributes to the understanding of how media narratives influence public perceptions of political Islam, particularly in relation to the Muslim Brotherhood. Most existing studies have focused on the historical evolution, ideologies, and political activities of the Muslim Brotherhood (Duman, 2024; Ehrenfeld, 2011); few have paid attention to how Anglo-Arab media outlets construct and disseminate narratives that shape regional and global perceptions of these key movements. This thesis focuses on two media organizations, namely the BBC and Al Arabiya, offering a comparative perspective that highlights how different political, geopolitical, and institutional contexts influence the media framing of topical issues. This focus is timely, especially with the current globalization of media, whereby audiences are exposed to a transnational news flow.

This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of strategic narratives by narrowing its focus to media representations of Islamic political movements. While most previous studies focused on theories of strategic narratives in the context of international relations (Freistein et al., 2024; Zhukova et al., 2021), this thesis extends their application to the analysis of news media discourse. It provides a novel framework for decoding how media outlets not only report events but also actively influence meanings, perceptions and narratives. The inclusion of both the BBC and Al Arabiya provides an avenue to compare both the convergence and divergence of media portrayals of topical issues. In so doing, this study’s findings provide insight into how media narratives play a role in shaping public attitudes towards political Islam and how perceptions of legitimacy, governance, and extremism are formed.

4. Thesis and Ideas

Our main hypothesis is that the two media outlets, the BBC and Al Arabiya, depict political Islam differently, although both classify the organization as a terrorist group. In doing so, we argue that both news outlets portray the group as inherently violent. The British Broadcasting Corporation is a public-service broadcaster funded directly by taxpayers. It has an international arm, the BBC World Service, that it is owned and operated by the BBC but funded in great part by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK (Born, 2003; Mills, 2020). It is possible to argue that the BBC’s news coverage of the MB is defined by both principles of impartiality and geopolitical imperatives that set the tone of media coverage and editorial attitudes toward Islamist movements (Said, 2008; Satti, 2015; Wahl-Jorgensen et al., 2016). The other media outlet we examine in this study is Al Arabiya. This network is a Saudi Arabian state-owned international Arabic-language television news channel. It is based in Riyadh and operates as a subsidiary of the MBC Group, a major media conglomerate in the Middle East and North Africa (Behravesh, 2014; Motalebi, 2021). As a result, its editorial position and overall geopolitical and political agendas broadly reflect the attitudes of both Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. in relation to Islamist movements such as the Brotherhood (Behravesh, 2014; Motalebi, 2021). This has resulted in relatively constrained editorial freedom. Further, news outlets are often sensitive to the government’s agenda; thus, in their coverage of politically sensitive actors, the Muslim Brotherhood is often portrayed as an extremist group and threat to security. Despite the greater and lesser degrees of co-option and levels of professional autonomy within each newsroom, both media outlets generally depict the Muslim Brotherhood as a subversive organization that engages in illegal activities throughout the region and perpetrates terrorist activities. This follows the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is banned and classified as a terrorist group by several governments in the region. BBC news coverage often highlights the Muslim Brotherhood group’s attacks on police headquarters and infrastructure, and Al Arabiya presents it as an extremist group. Indeed, as some authors have pointed out, there are differences that reflect the editorial orientation of each outlet, which affects the construction of the public’s understanding of key issues. There are also cases of remarkable convergence within the mainstream news media when it comes to other themes such as extremism, violence, and political Islam (Abunajela & Jebril, 2020; Nafiudin & Basid, 2025; Said, 2008). The BBC and Al Arabiya repeatedly paint the Muslim Brotherhood as an extremist and illegal group and link it to threats to security and opposition to Western political and modernist values.

5. Methodology

The main purpose of our study was to compare how the Muslim Brotherhood is represented in the Anglo-Arab media, using Al Arabiya and BBC reports as our sample. These news outlets were chosen because of their regional and international reach and their differing editorial environments, which enable comparisons between ways in which the news is framed. The data analysis was a mixed methods content analysis, which is suitable for analyzing the complexity of media constructions and the distribution of media images across media outlets (Busetto et al., 2020; Belotto, 2018; Creswell, 2012). This approach allows one to understand the nature of the structural bias in relation to political Islam. The analysis of content published by media outlets is associated with the political and social contexts in which they operate, which, as we have clarified, have an impact on the editorial bias of each outlet.

This study had a mixed-methods content analysis design (Creswell, 2012), employing quantitative frequency and qualitative discourse analyses. The sample included 20 news articles, 12 articles from Al Arabiya and 8 articles from the BBC Arabic, published from 2023 to 2025. The choice of these outlets was based on their geographic and geopolitical distribution and the variation in their institutional and geographic contexts, which would allow for comparative analysis of the media. The analysis used four pre-defined categories: religious references (Muslim Brotherhood), political framing (Political Islam, Extremism), geopolitical references (Palestine, Syria, Iraq) and sectarian references (Sunna, Shia). These categories were developed inductively based on the data and previous studies on the media framing of political Islam.

Firstly, quantitative content analysis was undertaken to explore the pattern of frequency among the variables, followed by qualitative discourse analysis to analyze word choices, tone, and framing and how these elements shaped meaning beyond the numerical distribution, following the methods of Busetto et al. (2020) and Van Dijk (2013). The sequence allowed for comparison of emphasis in terms of frequency and discursively by representation.

6. Findings and Discussion

This study provides a systematic comparison of the representation of the Muslim Brotherhood in BBC Arabic and Al Arabiya reports published during 2023–2025. Themes are used as indicators of underlying framing structures rather than to identify simple frequencies of keywords. In this way, “quantitative patterns” serve as “entry points” into a larger discourse analysis, which helps illuminate the construction of meaning in various media settings. The comparison shows, apart from differences in emphasis, that the two outlets diverge in the ways in which they communicate how political Islam can be understood (or not).

An important analytical finding is that the BBC Arabic makes references to the Muslim Brotherhood as part of a geopolitical and political conversation. The terms Palestine, Syria, and Iraq not only refer to geographic locations but also serve as signifiers placing the Brotherhood in the context of regional conflicts. The tendency is to view the Brotherhood in the context of the wider regional unrest and not as a single ideology. Al Arabiya, on the other hand, offers a more introspective approach to storytelling, in which the Muslim Brotherhood itself is the context, and contextual ties are less extensive within other geopolitical contexts. This frames the organization as a self-contained political issue.

Most importantly, the analysis revealed that frequency patterns are viewed not as neutral signs of attention but as signs of prioritization of the narrative. The latter, for example, implies a form of discourse that incorporates political Islam into reports of international relations and conflicts by the BBC Arabic, as evidenced by increased references to geopolitical issues. On the contrary, organizational references predominate in Al Arabiya’s reporting; this framing structure emphasizes the institutional identity and internal qualities of the Brotherhood. The differences suggest that there are different journalistic strategies of contextualization rather than just differences in quantity of coverage.

7. Data Set Description

Different categories of variables are evident across the data set. The first and primary one comprises the social–structural variables of religion, namely the Muslim Brotherhood. The second comprises political variables, such as Islam/political Islam/extremism. The third cluster contains geopolitical variables, such as Palestine, Syria, and Iraq, which are the names of countries in the Gulf region. The fourth category contains the sectarian variables, namely Sunna and Shia; it could also be included within religion as a sub-category. The combination of all variables helps demonstrate how religious, political, geopolitical, and sectarian dynamics are presented and framed in the media.

Table 1. Content analysis frequency (BBC Arabic vs. Al Arabiya).

Content Analysis (BBC Arabic vs. Al Arabiya)
Theme/Keyword	BBC Arabic	Al Arabiya
Muslim Brotherhood	252	774
Islam & Political Islam	288	187
Palestine	207	33
Syria	120	27
Iraq	41	76
Sunna	44	10
Shia	42	8
Total	994	1115

presents the frequency of the key themes and keywords identified in the content analysis of BBC Arabic and Al Arabiya.

8. Patterns of Distribution and Analysis

As shown in the table above, patterns in the BBC results indicate that the outlet has a sharp focus on geopolitical and political discourse. When the three geopolitical variables, namely Palestine (207), Syria (120), and Iraq (41), are combined, they yield a total of 368 mentions. This generates a mean of 123, with Palestine dominating the discourse at 207 mentions. Palestine and Syria, as the most prominent variables, are indicative of framing that places the discourse in the context of the conflict and geopolitical concerns in the Levant, a region that has been affected by strife for quite some time (Hamdan, 2021). The prevalence of references to Palestine (207 in BBC Arabic coverage) implies that geopolitical conflict narratives play a significant role in the BBC’s framing of the region. This suggests that the political Islam phenomenon is not treated as an ideological phenomenon exclusively but rather as part of a broader phenomenon of instability in the region.

The political category also dominates the discourse, with variables such as Islam, political Islam, and Extremism being used interchangeably by the BBC Arabic. Mentioned 252 times, the Muslim Brotherhood is crucial to the discourse. This high number of mentions indicates that it falls within the wider sociopolitical debate, which it may be a way to counter the discourse surrounding tension in the Gulf. The sectarian variables, namely Sunna and Shia, are not mentioned frequently, with each having 44 and 42 mentions respectively. These almost equal numbers may point to neutral framing of the two variables and support for the broader Muslim Brotherhood perspective.

Regarding the discourse, Al Arabiya’s coverage mostly depicts the Muslim Brotherhood from an organizational perspective; discussions of its political and geopolitical contexts are less prevalent. Al Arabiya mentions the Muslim Brotherhood 774 times, which is three times more than the BBC Arabia. The religious variables dominate the discourse, and such patterns indicate that this source values the Muslim Brotherhood. Political variables, such as political Islam and Extremism, come at a distant second with 187 mentions, indicating that despite their importance, these subjects are not given much attention compared to the Muslim Brotherhood. The third variable category is geopolitical: Palestine, Syria, and Iraq are mentioned 136 times. The pattern in Al Arabiya’s representation is significantly different from that of the BBC Arabic, as Iraq dominates the geopolitical discourse. In particular, it is mentioned 76 times, while Palestine, which has the highest number of mentions by the BBC Arabic, is only mentioned 33 times, and Syria 27 times. For both countries, these numbers could indicate a way for the government to maintain relations with its neighbors, with a deep focus on Muslim Brotherhood regardless of the region. Finally, the sectarian variable receives fewer mentions, with no mention of Sunna or Shia, a similar pattern to that observed in the BBC Arabic coverage.

The quantitative data reveal how different media outlets represent same topic. The BBC Arabic focuses on geopolitical and political contexts, so it presents the Muslim Brotherhood as a broader ideology to be discussed. In contrast, Al Arabiya’s coverage focuses on the organization in the context of its narrative, paying minimal attention to politics and geopolitics. Despite the uniform distribution of the articles, there is a greater difference in the frequency, which demonstrates how media coverage shapes agendas and public discourse.

9. Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis was used to compare the representation of the Muslim Brotherhood by Al Arabiya and the BBC Arabic. Twenty articles were analyzed: twelve from Al Arabiya and eight from the BBC Arabic. The comparative analysis revealed that Al Arabiya consistently reports on the Muslim Brotherhood with a negative tone, whereas the BBC’s tone is more neutral and moderate, with some critical and sometimes positive references but no specific positive framing. The difference in tone is not the only aspect in which the results of the discourse analysis differ systematically in the discursive construction of political legitimacy and threats. Al Arabiya’s reports are always situated within a security framework, where the Muslim Brotherhood is placed within a semantic field of disorder, subversion, and institutional collapse, leading to a delegitimization discourse. The focus on language of agency, including terms like violence, manipulation, and organization control, depicts the group as an internally coercive entity. By contrast, the BBC Arabic adopts a legal–institutional and descriptive orientation that frames the Brotherhood in terms of categories of political recognition, status, and external classification. If there are critical references, they are sometimes set against a larger explanatory frame, not an evaluative judgment. This results in discursive asymmetry between Al Arabiya, which foregrounds moral/security issues, and the BBC, which foregrounds classification/contextual reporting. In general, these framing logics represent not just simple differences in positive and negative tone but rather a variety of ways of presenting political Islam.

In terms of the Al Arabiya news coverage, the Muslim Brotherhood is being discussed in the context of an illegitimate group as seen from the generally confrontational tone adopted in its reporting on the group. In addition, the Muslim Brotherhood is described as a group that is politically defeated, split, isolated and a security threat. The use of language that reflects chaos, failure, loss, division, violence and control is used to construct the overall discourse of delegitimization. In such a context, the Muslim Brotherhood is constructed as a destabilizer, whose actions contribute to regional insecurity and institutional chaos. This is in keeping with the overall approach to the coverage of the Muslim Brotherhood by Al Arabiya as noted in the current study, in that it focuses on the organizational aspect of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Al Arabiya news network’s coverage is also characterized by a tendency to be critical and evaluative, in comparison with the largely descriptive approach of the BBC Arabic channel. The news reports used for this analysis frequently talk about the Muslim Brotherhood in connection with ideas such as manipulation, ideologization, and centralization of organizations. The picture that emerges here is that of an organization whose ideological nature is rather closed and where collective authority might predominate over the independence of individuals. For this reason, the Al Arabiya news network’s portrayal of the Muslim Brotherhood is usually less concerned with its religious nature and more with the political and organizational aspects, such as hierarchy and opposition to existing institutions of politics.

The BBC Arabic tends to compare the Muslim Brotherhood with other regional armed organizations, such as the Houthis in Yemen. It describes the Houthis as armed, territorial, and Iran-aligned, while the Muslim Brotherhood is described as an unarmed, not linked to Iran, and uninvolved in regional conflicts. The BBC Arabic, however, highlights that “mistrust persists and that ending the war in Yemen is not easy” (BBC, 2023), which acknowledges the two groups as both ideological and military actors. It should, however, be noted that although most of the articles from the BBC Arabic portray the Muslim Brotherhood in positive light, it is also negatively depicted in relation to its alleged financial ties with Hamas. This association engenders a more critical tone in BBC reporting, connoting Hamas with regional instability and violence, which is typical of the BBC’s general editorial stance that mixes institutional neutrality with selective emphasis on security-related stories. In a BBC (2025) interview, the news organization quoted three civil servants paid by Hamas who confirmed that they “have received nearly $300 each”, therefore indicating that Muslim Brotherhood has been financing Hamas activities. The negative attributions are, however, distantly projected and localized in Egypt, thus not specifically indicating responsibility for the suffering in the conflict zones, indicating the stance of the BBC Arabic. Overall, while Al Arabiya frames the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group and a threat to regional peace, the BBC portrays it as a group of political actors who aim to establish regional hegemony.

10. Conclusions

This study shows that the media’s portrayal of the Muslim Brotherhood is not just a reflection of the political situation; it is the result of specific framing strategies and definitions that create political Islam. Al Arabiya’s language is consistently “security-oriented and adversarial”, whereas the BBC’s framing is more “institutionally constrained and context-driven”. These differences are illustrative of the role that media ecosystems play in the building of political legitimacy and threat perception in transnational spaces. These distinctive accounts also suggest that media reporting is not always limited to the facts on the ground but also reflects editorial stances and political settings. This study has some limitations, as it relied on content analysis of BBC and Al Arabiya during a narrow timeframe, which limits the ability to generalize the findings. Additionally, the research relied on secondary sources only. No primary data were collected from either the journalists who wrote the reports or viewers who consumed them. This study also highlights the divergent approach with which the two media outlets develop stories around political Islam without measuring the impact on the way in which the audience receives them or on public opinion, which would have yielded more insight into editorial intent and the impact of the representations.