![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Part of a series on |
Islamophobia |
---|
![]() |
Stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims in the United States have been presented in various forms by the mass media in American culture. Stereotypical representations of Arabs are often manifested in a society's media, literature, theater and other creative expressions. These representations, which have been historically and predominantly negative, have adverse repercussions for Arab Americans and Muslims in daily interactions and in current events. In American textbooks, which theoretically should be less-creative expressions, similar negative and inaccurate stereotypes are also found for Arabs [1] and Muslims. [2]
A report titled 100 Years of Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim stereotyping by Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, director of media relations for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, describes what some in the Arab-American community call "the three B syndrome": "Arabs in TV and movies are portrayed as either bombers, belly dancers, or billionaires" a reference to Arab men being portrayed as either terrorists or wealthy oilmen, and Arab women as sex objects. The report also says that cartoons have been insulting to Arab and Muslims, and people who live in the US are the most affected by these stereotypes, which don't only cause psychological harm but also help feed into dehumanization that can lead to physical attacks. According to Mazin B. Qumsiyeh:
Thomas Edison made a short film in 1897 for his patented Kinetoscope in which "Arab" women with enticing clothes dance to seduce a male audience. The short clip was called Fatima Dances. The trend shifted over the years and was dominated by the "billionaires" for a short while, especially during the oil crises of the seventies. However, in the last 30 years, the predominant stereotype by far has been "Arab bombers." [3]
In a piece in the Los Angeles Times published July 28, 1997, Laila Lalami offers a 12-step guide to making a successful Arab-bashing movie, including such items as "the villains must all have beards", "they must all wear keffiehs ", "they must all have names like Ali, Abdul or Mustapha" and "threaten to blow something up." [4] [5]
After the September 11th terrorist attacks, Arab-American actors have found themselves even more likely to be typecast as terrorists. [6]
Jack Shaheen, professor emeritus of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois University, documented these trends in his book The TV Arab ( ISBN 0-87972-309-2), which identifies more than 21 major movies released over ten years that show the U.S. military killing Arabs, with Arabs depicted as terrorists or enemies of the United States. These included:
In Reel Bad Arabs ( ISBN 1-84437-019-4), Shaheen writes that "television's image of the Arab is omnipresent [and] is becoming a part of American folklore." He also writes that Arabs have "consistently appeared in American popular culture as billionaires, bombers, and belly dancers." [7]
Arab Muslims are fanatics who believe in a different god, who don't value human life as much as we do, they are intent on destroying us (the west) with their oil or with their terrorism; the men seek to abduct and brutally seduce our women; they are without family and reside in a primitive place (the desert) and behave like primitive beings. The women are subservient — resembling black crows — or we see them portrayed as mute, somewhat exotic harem maidens. [8]
The movies Shaheen identifies as the five worst in terms of negative portrayal of Arabs in modern films are:
These stereotypes are the main focus of the semi-autobiographical film Driving to Zigzigland, where the actor/taxi driver Bashar Daas finds himself being invariably typecast as an Arab Muslim extremist in US film auditions. [9] [10] [11]
Another stereotypical character is Achmed The Dead Terrorist by Jeff Dunham which was named mockingly for the prophet of Islam's second name Ahmad. However, there has been no action or reaction from the American public and human rights or any religious group against this and other stereotypical characters in this show. [12]
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were of Saudi Arabian origin and all were Muslim, Arabs and Muslims complained of increased scrutiny and racial profiling at airports. In a poll conducted by the Boston Globe, 71 percent of blacks and 57 percent of whites believed that "Arabs and Arab-Americans should undergo special, more intensive security checks before boarding airplanes." [13] Some Muslims and Arabs complained of being held without explanation and subjected to hours of questioning and arrest without cause. Such cases have led to lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union. [14] Fox News radio host Mike Gallagher suggested that airports have a "Muslims Only" line in the wake of the 9/11 attacks stating "It's time to have a Muslims check-point line in America's airports and have Muslims be scrutinized. You better believe it, it's time." [15] In Queens, New York, Muslims and Arabs complained that the NYPD unfairly targets Muslim communities in raids tied to the alleged Zazi terror plot. [16] [ unreliable source? ]
Stereotypes that the west has of the Middle East have made their way into the film industry, including that Muslims are terrorists, that all Muslims and Arabs look alike, and that the women are oppressed and abused, are only housewives and don't work. [17] The TV series Homeland portrays a Palestinian as a terrorist. In the show Arabs are shown as "backward, violent, and uncivilised". [18] [ unreliable source? ]
When impressionable children in the US who may not have much experience with Muslims or Arabs see negative depictions of Arabs they come to believe that this is reality. Children who had had some exposure to Muslims or were familiar with Islam viewed Arab Muslims more positively than less knowledgeable children. [19]
Anti-Arab racism includes opposition to, dislike, fear, or hatred of Arab people.
Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. People who harbour such sentiments often stereotype Muslims as a geopolitical threat or a source of terrorism. Academics, authors and policymakers still continue to debate the exact meaning of the term.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), officially the Middle East Media and Research Institute, is an American non-profit press monitoring and analysis organization that was co-founded by Israeli ex-intelligence officer Yigal Carmon and Israeli-American political scientist Meyrav Wurmser in 1997. It publishes and distributes free copies of media reports that have been translated into English—primarily from Arabic and Persian, but also from Urdu, Turkish, Pashto, and Russian.
Sleeper Cell is an American television drama series on the Showtime network that began airing on December 4, 2005. The tagline for the first season was "Friends. Neighbors. Husbands. Terrorists." and the tagline for the second season was "Cities. Suburbs. Airports. Targets." The series was nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Miniseries. The eight-episode second season of the series, titled Sleeper Cell: American Terror, premiered on December 10, 2006. Both seasons of Sleeper Cell were originally aired in an unusual fashion, by filming the entire season ahead of time and then airing the episodes on consecutive nights, such that each brand new season was aired for the first time over a period of less than two weeks. In Australia, both seasons originally aired on the Showtime Australia channel in 2006/2007. Re-runs as of 2008 have screened on the showcase channel.
Saladin the Victorious, also known as Saladin and the Great Crusades, is a 1963 Egyptian epic film directed by Youssef Chahine. It is co-written by Chahine, Yusuf Sibai and others, based on a novel by Naguib Mahfouz. The film features an ensemble cast. It stars Ahmed Mazhar, Salah Zulfikar, Nadia Lutfi, Omar El-Hariri, Mahmoud El-Meliguy, Leila Fawzi, Hamdi Gheiss, Ahmed Luxor, Hussein Riad, Laila Taher and Zaki Toleimat.
Anti-Iranian sentiment or Iranophobia, also called anti-Persian sentiment or Persophobia, refers to feelings and expressions of hostility, hatred, discrimination, or prejudice towards Iranian people on the basis of an irrational disdain for their national and cultural affiliation. The opposite phenomenon, in which one holds notable feelings of love or interest towards Iranian people for the same reasons, is known as Iranophilia or Persophilia.
Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor. After earning her licence ès lettres degree in Morocco, she received a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she earned an MA in linguistics.
Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People is a documentary film directed by Sut Jhally and produced by Media Education Foundation in 2006. This film is an extension of the book of the same name by Jack Shaheen, which also analyzes how Hollywood corrupts or manipulates the image of Arabs. The documentary analyzes 1000 films that have Arab and Muslim characters, produced between 1896 and 2000, out of which great majority, 936 titles, were negative in their portrayal, arguing that the slander of Arabs in American filmmaking has existed since the early days of the silent cinema and is present in the biggest Hollywood blockbusters today. Jack Shaheen analyzes a long series of "demeaning" images of Arabs through his presentation of various scenes from different American movies which he has studied. He argues that this image is characterized by showing Arabs either as bandits or as a savage, nomadic race, or shows Arab women as shallow belly dancers serving evil, naïve, and greedy Arab sheiks. Most important is the image of the rifle in the hands of Arab "terrorists". The film then attempts to explain the motivations behind these stereotypes about Arabs, and their development at key points in American history, as well as why it is so important today.
Jack George Shaheen Jr. was an American writer and lecturer specializing in addressing racial and ethnic stereotypes. He authored Reel Bad Arabs, The TV Arab (1984) and Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture (1997).
Deadly Heroes is a 1993 Israeli–Canadian action film directed by Menahem Golan, starring Michael Paré, Jan-Michael Vincent and Billy Drago. Paré stars as a former Navy SEAL trying to rescue his wife from a terrorist group who fled with her to North Africa after he attempted to thwart their attack on a Greek airport. Available date listings suggest that Deadly Heroes was the last 21st Century Film Corporation production released during the company's existence, although Crime and Punishment was belatedly released in 2002 by another entity.
There are stereotypes of various groups of people which live within the United States and contribute to its culture. Worldwide, a disproportionately high number of people know about these stereotypes, due to the transmission of American culture and values via the exportation of American-made films and television shows.
Racism in early American film is the negative depiction of racial groups, racial stereotypes, and racist ideals in classical Hollywood cinema from the 1910s to the 1960s.
American Muslims often face Islamophobia and racialization due to stereotypes and generalizations ascribed to them. Due to this, Islamophobia is both a product of and a contributor to the United States' racial ideology, which is founded on socially constructed categories of profiled features, or how people seem.
Mazin Butros Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian scientist and author, founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University where he teaches. After serving on the faculties of the University of Tennessee (1989–1993), Duke University (1993–1999), and Yale University (1999–2005), he now researches and teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities since 2008. Here Qumsiyeh joined with other professors to introduce the first Biotechnology Masters program in the region. Over the course of his career he has published well over 150 scientific papers on topics ranging from cultural heritage to biodiversity in addition to several books. He also serves on the board of a number of Palestinian youth and service organizations such as Al-Rowwad Children Theater and Siraj Center.
Islamophobia in Australia is highly speculative and affective distrust and hostility towards Muslims, Islam, and those perceived as following the religion. This social aversion and bias is often facilitated and perpetuated in the media through the stereotyping of Muslims as violent and uncivilised. Various Australian politicians and political commentators have capitalised on these negative stereotypes and this has contributed to the marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion of the Muslim community.
Islamophobia in the media refers to negative coverage of Islam-related topics, Muslims, or Arabs by media outlets in a way that is hostile, untrue, and/or misleading. Islamophobia is defined as "Intense dislike or fear of Islam, especially as a political force; hostility or prejudice towards Muslims", and the study of how and to what extent the media furthers Islamophobia has been the subject of much academic and political discussion.
Secret Son is the 2009 novel by Moroccan-American writer Laila Lalami. The novel is a bildungsroman that follows its main character, a Muslim youth named Youssef El Mekki, as he comes of age in the Casablanca slums.
Islamophobia in Sweden refers to the set of discourses, behaviours and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam and/or Muslims in Sweden. Historically, attitudes towards Muslims in Sweden have been mixed with relations being largely negative in the early 16th century, improving in the 18th century, and declining once again with the rise of Swedish nationalism in the early 20th century. According to Jonas Otterbeck, a Swedish historian of religion, attitudes towards Islam and Muslims today have improved but "the level of prejudice was and is still high." Islamophobia can manifest itself through discrimination in the workforce, prejudiced coverage in the media, and violence against Muslims. The anti-immigration and anti-Islam Sweden Democrats is the second largest party in the Riksdag.
Arabs are portrayed in film as film characters in both Arab films as well as non-Arab films, and both Arabs and non-Arabs take the role of an Arab. These portrayals often depict an ethnocentric perception of Arabs rather than an authentic and realistic depiction of Arabic cultures, religions, dialects, as well as customs and traditions. Common characteristics that are implemented in the role of Arab characters include speaking in a heavy accent, being hostile and vicious, and are in the context of terrorism. Key issues that have been explored in these portrayals include how Arabs are identified in mainstream Hollywood film, how Arabs self-represent themselves in their own film, with examples from Egyptian cinema, Palestinian cinema, as well as Syrian cinema. This article will also cover the emphasis on Islamophobia and its impacts on film. There has also been the portrayal of Arab women in film, the portrayal of Arabs post 9/11, the portrayal of Arabs in silent film, and positive portrayals and negative portrayals of Arabs. Lastly, the United States efforts to avoid the stereotyping of Muslims/Arabs and shifting the focus onto a positive outlook.