GRSJ224/Misrepresentation of Arabs and Muslims in Hollywood

Introduction

The West has had a particular, rather stereotypical idea of Arabs and Muslims that has largely been influenced by Western popular media. With the rise of violence and turmoil in Arab and Muslim countries coupled with the occurrence of events such as 9/11, the Arab Spring and allegedly Muslim Terrorist attacks in the West, there has been a tendency to create generalizations and stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims both depicted in Western media as well as Hollywood cinema. Hollywood has been the main culprit in how Arabs and Muslims are viewed in the West. In a study of over 900 Hollywood films released in the 20th and 21st centuries, author of Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, Dr. Jack Shaheen, uncovered how the portrayal of Arab men, women and children has been largely distorted and stereotyped. Shaheen claims that Hollywood provides an answer to the question "What is an Arab?" by portraying them as "brute murderers", "sleazy rapists", "religious fanatics", "oil-rich dimwits", and "abusers of women". This perpetuated image of Arabs in Hollywood depicts the ignorance of the West in recognizing the mutual exclusivity between Arabs and Muslims, creating the false assumption that all Arabs are Muslims and all Muslims are Arabs. Columnist Jay Stone sees the representation of Arabs as one of the "three B's: Billionair, Bomber, Belly Dance" and argues that Arabs continue to be racially targeted while other commonly targeted races such as Blacks, Asians and Jews have ultimately stood up for themselves .

Early representation of Muslims and Arabs in Hollywood

The Sheik (1921)

This stereotyped representation of Arabs has clearly been a problem for over a century of Hollywood cinema and can even be seen in early silent films such as The Sheik (1921) and its sequel The Son of the Sheik (1926). These two films, starring Rudolph Valentino, a white, non-Arab, non-Muslim actor, created some of the earlier stereotyped images of what Arab Muslims were perceived to be in the West: "brutal slavers" and "promiscuous desert sheikhs" . There are multiple issues to be criticized about this representation. First, the fact that the actor used to represent an Arab Muslim was actually Italian and bared no resemblance to what an Arab Muslim would look like. Second, the aforementioned films taint the meaning of the word "Sheikh".In Arabic culture, the word "Sheikh" can either refer to an elderly man over the age of 50, while in Islamic culture it refers to religiously, knowledgable man or leader in a religious community . Hollywood, however, created a whole new meaning of the word, dehumanizing both the Arab, and the Muslim, and further adding to the false assumption that Arabs and Muslims are one entity. While Arab and Muslim men are represented as abusive, bearded sheikhs, women are also fully covered from head to toe and portrayed as overly-obedient and "enslaved beings", highly dependent on their husbands . This image of the "Sheikh" extends to later films such as Jewel of the Nile (1985) in which Arabs are depicted kidnapping women and Frantic (1988) in which Arabs attempt to use nuclear weapons against Israel and the US. Dr. Jack Shaheen claimed this as the "Saddam Hussain/Osama bin Laden industry in Hollywood" .

Modern Day and Post 9/11 Representation:

Following the events of September 11, 2001, there was an attempt to suppress the amount of terrorism being portrayed in films due to the topic's sensitive nature. However, films such as The Siege (1998) and the Rules of Engagement (2000), among other terrorist-themed films, were instantly more popular amongst Americans, in which movie rentals were a record high during the post-9/11 era. The Siege featured American F.B.I. and C.I.A. agents in pursuit of Arab Muslim terrorists as well as Arabs killing violently murdering innocent New Yorkers. The film portrayed Arab Muslims in a generalizing, stereotypical manner, showing them as a threat to Americans and the United States . Rules of Engagement similarly creates a of hatred towards Arab Muslims by depicting U.S. Marines violently killing innocent Yemeni civilians. While both films were released before the September 11 attacks, their popularity after the attacks is evidence of the perpetuated, villainous image of Arab Muslims and the consequent racial targeting of Arab Muslims. Hollywood continues to misrepresent Arabs and Muslims in a rather ridiculing manner as well with films such as The Dictator (2012) satirically portraying negative stereotypes. The film stars Sacha Baron Cohen as Admiral General Aladeen, a Middle Eastern autocrat who rules the fictional Republic of Wadiyah, which is arguably a satirical representation of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The movie has been criticized by Arab-Americans as a "modern-day minstrel show", promoting the racism and prejudice that exists in their communities . This satirical representation extends to television series such as Family Guy, particularly in the episode "Turban Cowboy". In this episode, the main character, Peter Griffin, meets a Muslim character, Mahmoud, who invites Peter to convert to Islam .There is an exaggeration and a high level of ignorance in the representation of Muslim stereotypes such as the fact that Mahmoud was dressed in a brown robe and a white cap as well as the confusion that the Hookah is part of Muslim culture when in fact its origin has nothing to do with the religion. The confusion between Arab and Muslim stereotypes coupled with the episode ending in an attempted terrorist attack by the Muslim Character, Mahmoud, is still an attack on Arabs and Muslims alike, despite the fact that the show and the representation were meant to be satirical and comedic.

Arabs and Muslims: Blurred Lines and Intersectionality

This discriminatory representation of Arabs and Muslims by Western media occurs through generalizing, creating stereotypes, but worst of all, the West tends to blur the lines between Muslims and Arabs and effectively placing them under the same umbrella. This discrimination stems from the ignorance of the West regarding who Arabs are and who Muslims are. There is largely this false belief that the two terms "Arab" and "Muslim" are interchangeable and this is damaging to the way Arabs and Muslims are individually perceived in Hollywood and ultimately in real life as well. It appears as though Arabs were initially the target and that Muslims followed by association, with both the racial discrimination of Arabs and the Islamophobic discrimination feeding into each other. The intersectional nature of this matter is worth looking at because of how Islamophobia and Arab racial discrimination are never exclusively referred to or talked about individually thus limiting the action taken against such discrimination. Ultimately, it is up to Arabs and Muslims alike to reform their image by taking a stand against what Western popular media and Hollywood has done to taint it.

Summary

This wiki takes a look at both the early and modern representation of both Arabs and Muslims in Hollywood. Hollywood and Western Media have long had the tendency to target certain racial minorities and groups but the issue of Arabs and Muslims is a unique one. This is because of the constant association between the two groups and the disregard for the fact that the two groups simply overlap but are not necessarily part of the same entity. This ignorance creates an issue of intersectionality that has yielded over a century of misrepresentation of Arabs and Muslims in Hollywood cinema. It has perpetuated the image of the Arab, placing them in one of three categories: Billionaire, Bomber or Belly Dancer. Further, this image along with the image of the Muslim has been blurred into one to create two discriminations combined into one, with no sense of mutual exclusivity. This creates a synthesis of racial stereotypes both Arab and Muslim and thus creating confusion regarding which group is being discriminated and targeted. I decided to look at both films that were released before 9/11 as well as films released after 9/11 and showed how due to the perpetuated violent and evil image of Arabs and Muslims in Hollywood, a lot of Americans were inspired to practice ignorance, racial stereotyping and discrimination towards Arabs and Muslims. I believe that this wiki highlights the intersectionality in how the two groups, Arabs and Muslims, are falsely grouped into one and thus the discrimination and misrepresentation is seen as one problem. Being an Arab Muslim myself, I believe that this is a problem that extends further than Hollywood and Western popular media representation.