Muslims In Films

Arabs, Arab Americans, and Muslims are often stereotyped in movies as sheiks, barbarians, or terrorist. As many Muslim Americans are visibly culturally distinct, it would be of value to explore whether attitudes of non-Muslims toward Muslim Americans resemble attitudes expressed by European non-Muslims toward members of these minority groups.

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”.

In this tedtalk, Melissa Boigon, who studies Islam and its relationship to the Arab-Israeli conflict, talks about how Islamophobia has become more of a fear of Arabs over the last 10 years. She thinks that has to do with the connotation to terrorists groups such as Al-Qaeda, and the way middle east conflict is portrayed in The United States today. She also discusses how American Entertainment portrays Arabs, saying that it's propaganda in the form of entertainment.

These shortsighted views contribute to the major issues that affect Muslims, which involve prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice is a preconceived judgment, that is usually based on insufficient information (Tatum 102). Discrimination is the actions taken toward members of a group because of their group membership (Feldman 444). Specifically, these issues include harassment at airports, accusations of aligning their beliefs with ISIS, and alienation from U.S. communities. In particular, Muslim Americans can experience discrimination at airports for expressing stereotypical attributes of Muslims, such as Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a

Numerous post-9/11 television ential the issue of stereotyping and discrimination against Muslims. The many programs showed the ugly side to the justification of prejudices. American-studies scholar Evelyn Alsultany says, "The right to be racist and suspicious of Arab and Muslim Americans is affirmed and the government practices to profile racially, detain, deport, and terrorize Arabs and Muslims are accepted."

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.

Nevertheless, it seemed ironic to have such feelings towards people who carried an ancient or looked a certain way. The fear of appearing Muslim expanded greatly after the nine eleven attacks in America. It created stereotypes, and lead to harassment.Understanding our history as a nation, it would be foolish to say we were introduced to segregation, discrimination, and resentment on September 11, 2001. Mahadridge said in an interview, “People had hate, they had anger, but it was directionless. After 9/11, it had direction.” Individuals were judge based off of many factors, including one's sexuality, appearance, and religion. On this day, another victim was simply added to the list of American hostility.

Americans view September 11th as the impetus for a paradigm shift in the racial dynamic between Muslim Americans and traditional Christian Americana. Following the rise of ISIL, Ben Affleck refuted a “codified doctrine of Islam,” that mandates fundamentalist aggression. This goes hand-in-hand with what has been coined as “civilizational arrogance,” the assumption of total understanding of a religion. Noted Islamophobes, such as Bill Maher, insist that the supposed doctrine of Islam impedes his right to free speech. This plays into the idea of what has become known as “liberal victimhood,” the casting of oneself as oppressed.

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.

The Federal Department of Transportation discovered that in the days, weeks and months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that the airlines had naturally begun scrutinizing passengers who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. All of the attackers of 9/11 were Saudi Arabian and Muslim men. Racial profiling also played a significant role in the case of American Airlines from Paris. Passengers on board of the plane, unburdened by the rules and regulations of the Federal Department of Transportation, knew that the Muslim man nervously rocking in his seat was up to no good. Without hesitation, several passengers knocked him to the floor and tackled Richard Reid seconds before he detonated a bomb located in his shoe, potentially killing all of the passengers on board. Judging someone based off their ethnicity is just something people will do no matter what and as a result of racial profiling, terrorism could be stopped.

The Muslim Professor being dragged off her flight, racially assaulted and then charged with no due cause is an example of prejudice leading to immoral actions. On Tuesday, October 3rd of this year, Anila Daulatzai, who teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art, boarded a Southwest flight in order to see her sick father. Before the flight's departure, she noticed two canines and informed a flight attendant of her acute allergy to dogs and then was then moved to the rear of the plane with no conflict. However, shortly afterward she was told that she would have to leave the by two members of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. They then forcefully dragged her out of her seat and they attempted to haul her off the plain, during the entire encounter the officers treated her roughly, spoke to her in a condescending tone and treated her essentially like she was a criminal. Even after she and the officers parted ways the ordeal continued because of their attempts to charge her of with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct and threatening and racist letters in the mail.

The United States law enforcement system is broken. Ridden with prejudice, racial bias, and misappropriation of resources, the law enforcement system has turned the nation into a carceral state that has disproportionately targeted minorities in America. One minority that is often overlooked in the analysis of this broken system is the Muslim-American population. In 2009, “New Muslim Cool," a movie produced by Jennifer Taylor, shed some light on the harsh realities of living in America while “being Muslim" by following the path of Hamza Perez, a man who found salvation by converting to Islam. Hamza is both a hip-hop artist and local hero who goes to different jails around his community to support the rehabilitation of convicts, both young and

According to Jack G. Shaheen in his essay titled, “The Media’s Image of Arabs,” Hollywood producers must have instant kits that contain sunglasses, Arab clothing, tents, and mosques in order to provide a snapshot of Hollywood’s stereotypical Arab (99). Undoubtedly, the same holds true when depicting the typical southern example. Whether one

Syed Soharwardy asserts that “Media always tried to portray Islam as a religion of terror and all the Muslims as terrorists. The way the talk-show programs and news are produced and presented, it seems that the media has already decided the guilty verdict, regardless what would be the outcome of an investigation” (Soharwardy). So too do members of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee recognize the media’s predisposition toward bias, as is pointed out in this statement, found on their website: “Key industries of American mass culture, Holllywood and television, for decades have been bastions of anti-Arab stereotyping, and have consistently resisted positive or realistic representations of Arabs and Arab Americans. (Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee).”

The misrepresentation of minorities is frequent in Hollywood films and Arabs are one of the many minority groups Hollywood misrepresent. Arabs are portrayed negatively in films for long time even before 9/11. The Arabs characters are portrayed with always having accent, wearing traditional attire, untrustworthy, aggressive and almost always associated with terrorism. The continuously falsification could lead to stereotypes, misjudgment, and damage to Arabic culture.