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Assalamualaikum, readers! Thank you for visiting our humble and respectful blog! For those who are from our department, we are sure that you would know or have an idea or two about this blog. But, as for those who have just stumbled across our blog and    wondered around what is this blog for, let us give you a quick introduction of who we are and our objectives of being here.

♥ ♥ All About US ♥ ♥

We are consists of four group members who are Nur Diyana Amalina Bt. Mohd Abdul Wahab, Izzati Bt. Mohd Zakuan, Husmaida Bt. Ahmad Yudian and Aizat Mahfuzah Bt.Saleh. We are undergraduate students from the Department of English Language and Literature (DELL) of the International Islamic University of Malaysia or also known as IIUM . This blog is actually the combination of writings from four of us.

This blog has been specially created for our course titled Computer Application in Language Studies (CALL)  or  code titled ENGL 4740 . Therefore, we are basically English major students who are studying the use of computers and technology in language study. This blog is a required project for the entire semester, where we will be completing specific tasks given by our respected lecture. This blog is a place where we can create our creativity and critical thinking skills by applying the Islamization of Knowledge on one of the linguistic themes.

Our theme: Islamization of Critical Discourse Analysis


Why Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)? Well, a lot of the students have conception that this subject is very critical subject. Since there is "Critical" word in the course title. First and foremost, we choose this subject because it is easy for us to relate with Islamic perspectives.

Secondly, we want to share our knowledge and understanding not only for English students but also from other departments and kulliyah. We hope our blog can be accessible to all readers and open up their mind on what we are learning in this subject. We hope that all readers can understand what is Islamization and insert it in daily life. Insyaallah!

Do not afraid to share your knowledge. It is because knowledge is great when you get to share it around. From the bottom of our heart, please excuse us from any shortage or misinterpreted information on our blog. We as human are bound to make mistakes.

Hope all the readers will spent their time and enjoy reading our blog! =) Thank you. Wassalam!


What is CDA?


          
         
         For our respective blog, one main topic that we want to focus here is about the Islamization of Critical Discourse Analysis. Critical discourse analysis, as the name suggests; it needs us to critically analyze discourses. We need to extract the internal meanings and recognize the significance of any sentences. This is because, people tend to speak around the bush, leave hints and use similarities when approaching some sensitive issues. Hence, by only looking at the surface of it will not give the listener or reader the main intention of the speaker.        
           
           Mostly, the discourses that will be analysed are related to political speeches either spoken or written because among all speakers, political figures are the one mostly who will speak relatively different from what they meant to say. They show and maintain their power by manipulating others with coercion, hegemony and their ideologies. 

           Therefore, for this time being; we will analyze discourses and relate them from the Islamic perspective. How the coercion, hegemony and ideology are brought forth by the speaker and to what limit does it allowed in Islam. How are the impacts of these upon citizen? Do they bring benefits or the other way around? All these shall be answered and discussed by us. Insyaallah.

         Mostly, the discourses that will be analysed are related to political speeches either spoken or written because among all speakers, political figures are the one mostly who will speak relatively different from what they meant to say. They show and maintain their power by manipulating others with coercion, hegemony and their ideologies.

           
           Therefore, for this time being; we will analyze discourses and relate them from the Islamic perspective. How the coercion, hegemony and ideology are brought forth by the speaker and to what limit does it allowed in Islam. How are the impacts of these upon citizen? Do they bring benefits or the other way around? All these shall be answered and discussed by us. Insyaallah.  
         
           Generally, Critical Discourse Analysis or CDA focus on the areas of ideology, hegemony and dominance. In this assignment, sufficient data need to be included to justify the explanation based on speech transcriptions. A speech transcriptionz of two political leaders worldwide are being analyzed using the areas of ideology, hegemony and dominance.  Hillary Clinton and Benazir Bhutto are two different persons who have different sets of ideology, dominance and hegemony on women’s right. Link of speech transcriptions: Famous speeches.








What are their ideologies, coercion and hegemony ?


Hillary Clinton's main ideology is women as a part of the communities who are seeking humanities to listen to their voices. She wants women around the world to break their silence. In her speech, she also focused on the current issues which occurred around the world which is the violation of human’s right especially upon women. She believes that women should have the rights in education and work. Even in Islam, Allah already gave this authority toward women over years ago. Yet, today's society still wants to oppress women for certain reasons. That's Clinton's idea pertaining to this issue.                                                                                                                                                

“Never will I allow the loss of the work of any worker amongst you, male or female; you are of one another.” (3:195)

This verse shows that reward is given to people's action and not one's gender. Gender does not play any role in receiving reward. Allah S.W.T judges human beings based on their actions. We can take another example like the action of Eve and Adam's act. Islam dismisses the idea that Eve is the one who to be blamed for eating the forbidden tree. Islam believes that Adam and Eve are sinned for not following Allah's commandment. Since Clinton comes up with the women's right in education issue, we want to emphasize that both men and women are equally encouraged to seek knowledge. As Prophet Muhammad S.A.W said, “Education is compulsory for every Muslim.” According to a saying of Prophet Muhammad, it is obligatory for both genders to acquire knowledge. If we look at his saying, we found that he used "Muslim" as referring to people. Thus, Muslim here refers to both male and female. (Jamal Badawi, Gender Equity in Islam)                    

Violation of human rights was being emphasized so many times in her speech. Hillary Clinton stressed out that women’s right should not be separated from human rights. It should be treated equally because women are human too. She used lots of hegemony words “violation”. Based on the content, Hillary Clinton shows that women’s right has been abused by other people. Women did not get their rights and become the victim of world’s refugee especially in slavery, education and others. They become the “prize in war” as stated in her speech. Besides that, there are coercion words in her speech that give hope and support for women. She spoke on behalf of women around the world and wanted people to look at her as a role model. As in examples; “Speaking to you today, I speak for themjust as each of us speaks for women around the world….” and “I have met new mothers in Jogjakarta, Indonesia…”.  Hillary Clinton has involved with World Health Organization to help people who is in need. She gave her experienced on how women around the world try to sacrifice and stand on their own for their family to survive. Therefore, she does not want other women to feel discourage and lost hope. She wants women to stay strong and fight for their rights as human.

Due to injustice, the plight of women and a scar of a long and lonely battle have become coercion in her speech. Coercion gave deep impact to the audience. It is because plightscar and battle are commonly used in war in order to get justice or rights. Every battle will leave injuries or memories which includes bad and good ones. She has strong will to change the difficulty in coercion “I am determined. Her ideology about women as the potential to the gigantic task of nation building made women realized their role. It is because women can contribute to society with full potential. Women are known to be multitasking. It is proven in her speech, “I am determined to harness their potential to the gigantic task of nation building

There are lots of differences in Hillary Clinton speech and Benazir Bhutto speech. Different background, race and nationality can be the factors of different way in convey speeches and messages to audience. Although they convey the same issue which is women, the method they used are contradict. Other than that, Hillary Clinton used lots of hegemony words such as weour and us compared to Benazir Bhutto. For examples, “We come together in fields and in factories”, “Our goals for this Conference…” and “…..there is far more than unites us than divides us”. On the other hands, Benazir Bhutto used I, my and me several times in her speech. In our point of view, Hillary Clinton tends to be more humble while Benazir Bhutto tends to show her power since she is the first woman to head an Islamic nation. Both of them have different position in political power.

Lastly, Benazir Bhutto speech is controversial because she portrays men as dictatorship and tyranny in her country compared to Hillary Clinton who only points out women issues around the world. It is because Benazir Bhutto has the highest ranking in political power while Hillary Clinton is a Secretary of State. Benazir Bhutto stated in her speech, “The will our people prevailed against the forces of dictatorship”. The words that were used in the sentence are directed towards men and Benazir Bhutto does not show any fear in her speech. She is very bold and cunning person.Women is not the only person who should be protected; young girls are part of it too. In some countries, young girls become the key victims of human trafficking due to their gender. Therefore, Hillary Clinton tends to alert people that something has to be done because it involves underage children and children need to be sheltered. Although she keeps using women as the main topic, she still includes girls in her speech in order for people to realize the danger that not everyone knows. In her speech, “instrument of armed conflict” was used to show that rape issues among women are like toy and not taken seriously by others. She believed that every woman in this world should be treated with respect and dignity. 

This issue is really controversial. Even in modern world, female is still being ill treated by societies around the globe. Imagine, over 1400 years ago, women were ill treated and were used as property. Women carried no status at all. But, Islam tells that every woman should be well treated. People should be informed that women have a very important place in Islam. Personally, we noticed that although Islam gives women rights, but, Muslims do not. And that is why we always hear about women are being abused. 

Hillary Clinton used a lot of hegemony words in her speech such as; womenIuswe and etc. She puts herself in the situation because she is a woman too. She shows everyone that she is concerned about gender bias happening around her. For examples; “Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words” and We need to understand that there is no formula for how women should lead their lives”. She wants women around the world to hear her messages and challenge themselves to have their own rights. It is not only for them but also for their generations, their children. She wants women to believe that she will always support and help them. As for Benazir Bhutto, her main ideology is the role of women in Islamic religion. She connects her speeches on women with the ethos of Islam. It is proven in her speech transcription where she used lots of hegemony words which are Islamreligion and women. She also used coercion words to show her religion has given her priority such as empoweredstrengthened and emboldened.  In example, It is this tradition of Islam that has empowered me, has strengthened me, has emboldened me”.

Women struggle alone against discrimination and exploitation is one of the ideologies she conveyed in her speech. She believed that women are the victims of male dominance, dictatorship and tyranny. Coercion words such as culture of exclusion, oppression, discarded, injustice, sidelined and inferior members show that women have no equal rights in society. Benazir Bhutto emphasized it her discussion; “Women became the victims of a culture and male dominance”.  She used the word culture which can be interpreted as norms in the society. Firstly, Hillary Clinton and Benazir Bhutto came from different religious background. Hillary Clinton did not use any religious speech in her discussion but Benazir Bhutto did use it. In every sentence, Islam will be used in her discussion. She believes that Islam thought us to be equal with different gender. Hillary Clinton used coercion “come together” to show unity of women rather than Christianity in her discussion. She treats everyone the same and creates the bonding of sisterhood. There is no racism in her discussion. Secondly, Hillary Clinton speech is more general while Benazir Bhutto only focused to her country. It means Hillary Clinton spoke for women around the world and Benazir Bhutto worried about women in her country. “I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air and clean airwaves…” is the example of Hillary Clinton speech. The word mothers can be generalized as women, girls and older women around the world. As for Benazir Bhutto, she did emphasize about her country. For example, “It is a national catastrophe for my nation….”. The word nation refers to her country, Pakistan.

After analyzing the both political leaders’ speech transcriptions, there is similarity portrayed among both parties.  Hegemony words such as an Americanmy nationmy own country and the woman of Pakistan show that both parties are proud of their nationality. Hillary Clinton said, “As an American, I want to speak up for women in my own country”. Although her speech is general, she still worried about women in her country but do not really emphasized it compared to Benazir Bhutto. Benazir Bhutto started her speech with Islamic nation and ends it with I dream of Pakistan. Generally, Pakistan is one of the Islamic countries. Therefore, the whole speeches are about her country and the role of women in Pakistan.



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