After 11 September 2001, a discourse that propagated a link between Islam and contemporary terrorism became dominant. One ideological foundation of this discourse is the assumption that the relationship between Islamic and Christian societies is inherently antagonistic. Perhaps the most prominent elaborations of this thesis can be found in Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations and Bern- hard Lewis's The Roots of Muslim Rage. While the discourse of antagonism between ‘East’ and ‘West’ in the mass media has certainly taken on a trivialised form, it seems only all the more persistent. The question arises how one could challenge what has become a prevalent view on the issue, creating counterstories and counterhistories in the face of a dominant and omnipresent media discourse. Author, film-maker and broadcaster Alexander Kluge has conducted television interviews with Mohammed Arkoun, Dr. Manfred Osten and Tariq Ali that attempt to circulate an alternative image of Islam within the mass media. Differences from the conventional discourse result partly from the statements of the interviewees. However, Kluge's programmes suggest that a simple counterstatement is not sufficient to create subversive discourse. Instead, the presentation of the ideas itself needs to resist mainstream aesthetic television conventions.

Kluge has produced three interviews on Islam in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The interviews critique the discourse on Islam that has dominated the mainstream news media. However, Kluge moves beyond the mere critique of Western Orientalism by providing an alternative discourse on ‘Islam’ and the ‘Orient’ in commercial television. The following investigation will analyse the three interviews to show how Kluge reframes Islam. It will concentrate on the interview with Arkoun, since it is Kluge's most comprehensive attempt, foreshadowing the other two interviews both thematically and stylistically. As will emerge, Kluge achieves an utmost level of control over the finished text by means of selective processes (casting, editing) and active processes (verbal intervention, verbal and visual montage, additional visual and textual elements). Kluge emphasises instances of authorship during his interviews, violating mainstream television practice, which generally hides authorship behind aesthetic genre conventions. Kluge's insistence on authorship in news-media genres, such as interviews and documentary-style magazines, is one of the most fundamental and important lessons to be learned from his television.