What Are Bad Arabs?

Like other ethnic minority groups in America, Arab Americans face daily challenges in their overall development and well-being. These challenges take the form of discrimination, stereotyping, and general negative reactions to them as an ethnic group.

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.

In the fallout of the 9/11 attacks large factions of Americans would not feel comfortable in the presence or vicinity of Muslims. Bush favored a, “freedom agenda” (World Politics News Review, 2011). that promoted democracy in the Middle East in the hopes to limit extremism. The idea being that democracy in these areas would provide a peace that has never been achieved in thousands of years in that region. While promoting democracy the American citizenry has looked at the Muslim community with a wary eye.

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

After several incidents that happened around the world, peoples view on Arabs changed. The media played a big role in “the stereotyping of Arabs”. It is one of the main reasons for people to think the way they are about Arabs. Many

When the movie “The Siege” starring Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington premiered in 1998, it was met with protest in Michigan. Nizam Arain, who belongs to the Muslim Community Association thought that Hollywood went too far with the Arab stereotype. He was quoted as saying: “To have the American public aware of the existence of Muslim terrorists is the job of the news media. But the purpose of the film is entertainment” (CNN 1998). After September 11, 2001, Arab-Americans were the targets of hate. “Mosques were firebombed, Arab-Americans were vocally abused and physically attacked, and at least six persons of Arab descent were murdered” (Lester 2002). This can be attributed to the false stereotype that the media created that all Arabs are terrorists, because that is what they are predominately portrayed as.

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

This book chapter also introduces surveys, examples and statistics that will help support my argument and further my research. This book chapter differs from the article, “Framing Arab-American and Muslims in the U.S. Media” because it explores the way that the U.S. media attempted to aid in the destruction of the Arab and Muslims terrorist stereotype, but ultimately failed. It provides an interesting contrast from the article, presenting a more positive way that the media tried to portray Arab and Muslims after 9/11. This book chapter, although different than the article, does reinforce the same idea that Arab and Muslims were ostracized following the events of 9/11 and felt they needed to prove themselves to the rest of American citizens as “good Americans”. The information in this book chapter is reliable because it has numerous cited examples and statistics that reinforce the validity of the main idea. This book chapter helps perpetuate my research as it gives me another perspective on the influence of the U.S. Media, and encourages me to continue down this path of research, and I will now be looking for how the U.S. media have tried to correct the terrorism stereotype they perpetuated against Arabs and

according to saheen cinema is a vehicle which fosters the stereotype of the evil arab. Post 9/11 attack the whole image has been changed . Saheen also says that the Hollywood accepts African American actors but express racist slurs towards arabs (Shaheen, J. G. (2003). Reel bad Arabs: How Hollywood vilifies a people. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 588(1), 171-193.) There is no shortage of muslim villains and terrorists in Hollywood films and television programs. All of the muslims are pictured in Terrorists or villians or Barbaric or foreigners . The media potrays muslims in a very narrow boundry, a muslim women is either shown as belly dancer or a women wearing a hijab while mens are mostly shown as terrorist or either sheiks having huge oil spills in arab . the media never shows how good and how bright the muslim community has flourished with knowledge that they precive. One of the biggest media example is Disney potryaing muslins in Aladin. They present this community living in deserts and having swords with them all the time . did anyone has ever seen an ordinary muslim guy who carries a big sword with him always? No

One major social problem that Arab Americans face today, is racism and having been labeled as terrorist. In fact the treatment against Arab Americans is very violent and cruel compared to past decades before. Various reports have inquired that after the 9/11 attack on New York, and other attacks that have happened around the world, people have since then viewed Arab Americans as a different type of people, there are harsh feelings that they don’t belong in the United States, because they are dishonest people, nomads, and users. (The Atlantic, 2016). Although

American Muslims are having their civil rights violated more and more and are constantly being discriminated against. Haddad says that “Post 9/11 American Muslims were linked to enemy others and were expected to prove their loyalty to the nation-state in ways other Americans were not expected to do. The trope of Muslims as enemies within lingers.” The national media still portrays American Muslims as enemies to the United States. These unquestioned beliefs about Muslims leads to Islamophobia and Said says “To most Americans, Islam is nothing but trouble. The use of the label Islam, to either explain or indiscriminately condemn Islam, becomes a form of attack.” Said goes on to say that “Islam is used to define a small portion of extremism instead of the billion Muslims

Although Middle-East Politics Club numbers fewer than 10, my hope is that our little organization can help my high school community embrace Muslim-Americans in the same way Americans have embraced so many other ethnic and religious groups. Addressing the issue will not be easy. Meetings and discussion groups are taking place to explore the possible reasons why Americans have a deep-seeded hostility towards Muslims. Our ultimate goal is to stem the ever-increasing antagonism towards Muslims through education. As Helen Keller said in her essay Optimism, “The highest result of education is tolerance.”

With the American people showing ever increasing interest in Muslims since the attacks on America, it was inevitable that this would change the way Muslims would be viewed in the United States. The 9/11 attacks - carried out by nineteen Islamic extremists - have no doubt changed how Muslim-Americans are perceived in this country, and those feelings have simmered for 15 years now. Even though a stigma against the Muslim American community had been growing in the US because of wars and conflicts, the attacks on the world trade centers in New york marked an era that ushered in mass stereotypes and disenfranchisement for Muslim Americans (Bakalian, Anny, and Mehdi Bozorgmehr). According to Mehdi Bozorgmehr and Anny Bakalian, an Associate Director and Mehdi Bozorgmehr is Co-Director of the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center at the Graduate Center, immigrants from the Middle East are familiar with stereotypes and discrimination in the United States. In backlash 9 ⁄ 11, they examined the harassment, discrimination, and hate crimes committed by individuals against members of the targeted communities or people who look ‘‘Middle Eastern.’’Islam has established a niche in America. Estimates vary, but there are about 4 million Muslims in the United States and Canada. Although a major portion of this community is made up of immigrants, there has been a steady increase in the number of Americans accepting Islam (History of Islam). According to Karine Walther, an Assistant

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.