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It would seem that it is not just the misrepresentation of Arabs and Muslims as a regressive group but also the lack of representing them in a balanced way. Pistritto in The Real Faces of Islam compares the representation of Muslims in “Islam vs Islamists”, a documentary that had taken the task to show Muslims battling with Islamic extremists in a struggle to represent Islam, and “The Muslim American” a documentary that explores the lives of Muslims in Europe and America after the events of 9/11 in an attempt to show their diversity and compare the lives between them. Islam vs Islamists in its attempt to display the morals held by extremists, failed to show who they were trying to represent. The characters, who were fighting for a better representation of Islam felt nothing more than an odd minority in a sea of anti-western extremists. The Muslim Americans on the other hand handled its representation of Muslims more appropriately; showing that Muslims in America are less likely to express radical views due to them being better off financially. It also brings to our attention that Muslims just like any other ethnic group, do not hold extremist views and that many of these extremist views held by the minority differ on numerous levels.
This form of stereotyping is nothing new in the modern world. This stereotype does not only focus on Muslims specifically. This stereotype is also implemented in people in a Muslim-majority country. If we consider Arab countries to be a big representation of Muslim religion in this world then many populations also face this type of stereotypical issue by being a part of the religion. A 2013 commercial by co-cola shows cowboys in Vegas girls and an Arab man with a camel. In this small commercial, the Arab man has been portrayed as backward when it comes to competing with others for a giant bottle of coke in the desert. Even in the movies or series Arabs are shown as either villains or terrorists. In the year 1994 “True Lies” where Arnold Schwarzenegger acts as a spy of a secret government agency they showed a group of terrorist groups in which the terrorist group they have represented the members of the group as Arabs. It’s not only in movies this type of stereotype happens but it is also been shown in animated movies as well. Big characters of Disney like Aladdin have also portrayed such kind of stereotypes in their theme song which was edited again when people raised their voices in the year 1992. Hollywood has failed to show the broad diversity found in Arab women, by only giving them roles such as veils, Hijabs, and most commonly belly dancers. Famous movies such as “Aladdin” (2019), “Arabian Nights” (1942), and “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” (1944) have also portrayed Arab women as obscure dancers.
If you consider the representation of Muslim groups in the movie or TV show industry most of the time they are either considered a terrorist, half-witted foreigner, or sometimes a troubled wife. Other than that, the worst judgment is relating Arabs and Muslims together. Muslims are a wide group of people who follow Islam as their religion while on the other hand, Arabs are people from Middle Eastern nations who can choose their faith on their own. Even after so much controversy, there are still some great movies that have inspired the world with a Muslim character in the films. If we take, for example, Ali. This movie was about the boxer Muhamad Ali. This movie shows that he had difficulties trying to marry a person with a different faith and the challenges of being famous by being the legendary boxer of all time. In a recent TV film Quantico which was portrayed as two Muslim girls have been taken place and was praised by many people. This has also changed people’s point of view with the representation of how a Muslim girl can also be smart, intelligent, and competitive. Young Muslim girls like the way she carried the image and inspired people. Some of the historical movies also portrayed the Muslim character out of the common stereotypes. We see the movie Kingdom of Heaven where the Muslim leader was brave and sympathetic. On the other hand movies like The Reluctant Fundamentalist have shown us how Muslim people were treated after the 9/11 tragedy. During this situation, the character was abroad but as soon he returned to America; he did not find any whole-hearted welcome. After this he had to decide should he should change his next destination because of all the discrimination and hatred he faced. This was relatable to a lot of people during that time living in a foreign land. Taking this into account many people faced a lot more than this during that time for being a Muslim.
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