Stereotyping Arabs

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.

Islamic stereotypes are not new to Western culture. Problems can be traced back to the time of the Crusades, when Christians and Muslims were vying for control of Jerusalem. At

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.

During the years of post-9/11, Americans have started to become wary of non-Americans in their home land of the fear of another terrorist attacks. The 9/11 attacks have changed American views on the muslims and on the Middle East. It also had made security regulation more strict and discriminatory. Since post-9/11, Americans the wrong impression of the Middle East and have negative views of it and also have stereotype of it as well.

“When all imagemakers rightfully begin to treat Arabs and all other minorities with respect and dignity, we may begin to unlearn our prejudices” (Shaheen 87).

On September 11, 2001 America was in shock because of the events that occurred that morning to their beloved world trade center twin buildings. The deaths and injuries caused the people to automatically hate those that were responsible, Al Qaida members. This group is notorious for their dislike of American lifestyles. From then on Americans would go on to keep a close eye on these individuals and people that looked like them. That same year in the United States “58 percent favored Arabs to undergo more lengthy security measures. “From Samuel R. Gross, “Racial Profiling Under Attack”, (June 2002): 1413.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2002, the government of America felt threatened. Society as a whole went straight to thinking that all Middle- Eastern people were terrorists and were going to plot more attacks. Many people who look of Middle- Eastern descent were beaten out of the anger from the attacks. It was common belief that people who are Middle-Eastern are terrorists.

It is common knowledge that the topic of race is being examined all over the world. Frequently, more efforts are made through formation of policies, enactment of laws, and abolition of practices to obliterate racial discrimination. The pace of success of this endeavor is being delayed by the media because the media constantly portrays race in an inappropriate and derogatory manner. A race as described by Yolanda. T. Moses is a group of people who share similar and unique characteristics, while racial stereotypes are automatic and mental pictures held about all members of a particular social group. When people are stereotyped racially, they do not take into account individual differences .The media’s poor understanding of the true meaning of race has been communicated to the general public, making people think race is a biological phenomenon whereas it is socially and culturally constructed (Moses 735) and this has caused the increase in racial stereotypes by media’s continuous portrayal of negative stereotypes of different races all over the world.

Arab Americans have been targets of discrimination long before the 9/11 event happened. If they are immigrants in America, they are seen as bombers or terrorists. And if they are American citizens, they are seen as spies. The way Arabs are portrayed in Hollywood movies have been reflected in the way the government and society as a whole view them. And the way Americans show their discrimination is by rejecting or denying Arabs in all aspects of society which makes it harder for them to succeed. Overall, Arab Americans are seen as dangerous and threatening to Americans. Because they were being harassed all the time, they have a harder time adapting and participating in the American society. All young Americans have a hard time finding

Really anyone who could possibly fit the stereotypical description of an Arab. Harsh attitudes towards these people have drastically enhanced from the events of September 11st, and remained present in society today.

After 9/11 and the subsequent increase in national security, many Muslims, or those who fit the stereotype of Muslims, have been profiled and “randomly selected” for screening in airports. Islamophobia, which is a result of Muslim stereotypes, has also caused many Muslims (and Arabs that fit the Muslim stereotype) to be faced with racial slurs, threats, physical assault and even death. This is because most people cannot dissociate the stereotype that Muslims are terrorists from reality. As a result they lash out at anyone they believe fits the profile of being

Muslims faced tremendous amounts of prejudice after the September 11th attacks. The September 11th attacks were four coordinated attacks perpetrated by the terrorist group known as Al Qaeda. These attacks killed 2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 innocent people. These terrorist attacks also contributed to the fear that we now know as Islamophobia.

Islam is portrayed and is commonly accepted as the most violent and largest direct threat to the West. This is a generalization made by most of the West, but it is not particularly the West or the Islamic people’s fault. There is constant turmoil in Islamic countries in the Middle East and these conflicts are what make the news in the West. The only representation in the media that the Islamic nation gets is that of war. Though most Islamic people are not violent, the select few that do participate in terrorist groups give the rest of the Islam nation a bad image.

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.

Everyone, at some point in their life, has made a mistake. Sometimes we get lucky and only falter a little, making it through the problem relatively intact. Other times, we mess up a lot and have to fix what was damaged over a long period of time. However, the same is true for most, if not all cases—those who make the mistake learn from it. Often times, our failures teach us valuable lessons that we only gained because of the experience we gathered after messing up. I have personally achieved a wealth of knowledge and experience just from all of my own little mishaps, and a few major ones.