Case Study- How Hollywood Portrays Arabs

The representation of Middle Eastern men and women in Hollywood, as either terrorists or oppressed housewives, further perpetuates stereotypes people have of the Middle East. Portrayals of the The Arabian Peninsula are a deserted war-torn desert, where people still live like Bedouins using camels as their only form of transportation. The depiction is much like the mythical city of Akraba in Disney’s Aladdin. Aladdin illustrates Arabs as malevolent greedy beings. I can recall numerous time people have asked if where I'm from is “safe”.

By continually representing the Muslim or the Arab as the heartless villain, even cartoon movies contain a biased perspective against the Muslim image in America. All that glitters is not gold, and this is true for films fresh off the reels of Hollywood, as some contain an unfair perspective of Muslims.

with a segment demonizing the West and Muslims who seek political compromise with the United States, Europe.. and Israel. Closing with an appeal from the late Abdullah Azzam, one of Osama bin Ladin's spiritual mentors, the film calls on Muslims to transcend the illusion of nationalism and join a never-ending holy war. The recruiting video uses the attack as a religious call to transnational terrorism.

After the attacks on September 11, 2001, media approaches have altered. On Television shows and movies, in newspapers and on the radio, there has been an increase in hate crimes targeting Arabs and Muslims. Most coverage today follows a script that represents Arabs and Muslims only in the context of terrorism. Evelyn Alsultany wrote a book called Arabs and Muslims in the Media in 2012. The stories explained the new standards in racial and cultural representations after 9/11.

Although the movie was an attempt to show the negative outcomes of prejudice, racism and stereotypes, it used these stereotypes to convey this message. For example, there was a Persian shopkeeper, who looked Arab, and could not speak clear English or fully understand it. An exchange between a White American gun shop owner and the Persian shopkeeper was a prime example of not only race relations but international relations represented in American culture. After the tragic events of 9/11, citizens who possessed Muslim and or Middle Eastern characteristics came under great attack from all other Americans including minorities. It is apparent that Americans are unacquainted of other people in countries around them. When the gun shop owner called the shopkeeper, “Osama”, because he was getting impatient due to the time it took for the shopkeeper’s daughter to translate the conversation, he expressed his disdain and ignorance about

to attack the US Army. John Pilger discusses this film by saying “this film offers a vicarious thrill through yet another standard issue psychopath, high on violence in somebody else’s country where the deaths of a million people are consigned to cinematic oblivion.” (“John Pilger On Why The Oscars Are A Con”)

1998: The United States launches air strikes on bases which were thought to be of Osama bin Laden, the man who is accused of bombings of US embassies in Africa.

Moore successfully subverts all of these ideologies and outlines the harmful, shameful, and corrupt actions the American media, military, and government all take part in. Some might argue that Moore becoming a celebrity status takes away from the authenticity of his films (Oberacker, 179). However, Michael Moore embodies the working class man within his films and this is one element that strengthens his films into persuading his audience into taking on his worldview, one that is critical of the media, capitalism, and

According to Jack Shaheen's article, “Reel Bad Arabs,” Shaheen articulates that certain stereotypes remain in movies surrounding the depictions of Arabs. Of the five basic Arab character types which include Arabs being portrayed as Villains, Sheikhs, Maidens, Egyptians, and Palestinians, in the film Raiders of the Lost Arc directed by Steven Spielberg, Arabians are conveyed as individuals sought to destroy Westerners by helping Nazi’s. To remove any doubt that Egyptians were not American allies, one of the first scenes shot at Egypt includes an Egyptian proclaiming “Heil Sieg” which demonstrates obedience to the Nazi Party. This movie immediately makes Arabs look like villains once Indiana Jones and Marion arrive in Cairo Egypt. Once the pet monkey reveals that they are foreigners, immediately the Middle Eastern characters turn against them and greet them with failed slashes to their faces with obnoxious looking machetes. As

One of the impacts seen through the movie that American Arabs face in America is their identity. They can neither identify themselves as Arabs or Americans. They can’t identify themselves as Americans because other Americans look down upon them for looking or acting different. Some of them stand out because of traditional clothing that they wear or because they speak in their native language in public. They also can’t identify themselves as Arabs because back home they are seen as American rather than Arabs. Like every other ethnicity and race, if you are not born in the United States there will always be a conflict in assimilation. If you try to assimilate to American cultures and customs other Americans will look at you as being less than

The film argues that President George W. Bush had close ties with the royal house of Saud of Saudi Arabia, which is why Bush tried to change public’s focus from the 9/11 attacks to the war in Iraq. In Moore’s opinion, Bush took the focus away from the real enemy and got Americans glued to their TV sets to watch innocent Iraqis getting killed by US

September 11th, 2001- a day that will always be remembered in United States history. To this day, 9-11 marks the largest international terrorist attack that has ever been performed in the United States. 2,977 people total were killed in result of the terrorist attack, and left millions of Americans in grief, shock, and mortification (Martino).Fear became embedded in American’s hearts, and racial profiling against Arabs grew rampant.

ciety is important that films and other media show those who are Muslim in an honest light and not simply the propaganda that every news station wants you to believe. Musa Syeed’s sophomore feature depicts an honest, though at times superficial, glance at not only a Muslim’s life but a refugee’s life in the United States, more specifically Minneapolis.

September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and profit-driven espousal to round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute coverage, demonstrated an obsession with the attacks, by broadcasting almost nothing but the latest developments in the search and rescue efforts and investigations

                There are handful of movies released featuring Arabs characters in a negative way although the one that caught my attention is Rules of Engagement. The film Rules of Engagement, was produced by Scott Rudin and Richard D. Zanuck, which was released in March 31st 2000. The film star leading characters are Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones. The film illustrates how misrepresentation of Arabs culture and tradition is being normalized. The film is about a U.S. Marines whose base was in Yemen and had conflict with the civilians. The Arabs in the film were portrayed as violent people who were killing the Marines at the U.S. Embassy, where the civilians were protesting. The film set unacceptable image of Arabs.  In American society where technology is advanced image is a big deal because society perceive image as important. Hollywood as the biggest entertainer in the world set unacceptable image of Arabs and the images has a power to change people's perspective of how to view/interpret the