My Religion, Your Prejudice
Biased Representations of Muslims in American Film
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Beschreibung
The early American cinematic Islam is stereotypically depicted as mysterious, exotic, filled with images of bejeweled, yet veiled women belly dancing in harems, bearded hookah smoking sheikhs and dark-skinned villains living in an imaginary lush desert oasis. The Muslim male is homogenously portrayed as an uncivilized heathen. The former tropes of the Muslim sheik, lusty despot and sexually exotic and subservient women in today’s American cinema have been replaced with newly imagined exotic and negative tropes as hijackers, kidnappers, terrorists, and deceitful yet oppressed women, silently veiled by the chador and burqa. Muslims are no longer magical and otherworldly. American film today presents Muslims as a menacing radical threat and source of terrorism.
Although there have been a few images of positive Muslims in American film, there still remains the stereotypical male Muslim terrorist, bomber and oil rich billionaire. Portrayed as a global menace, Muslims are essentialised as fanatics, zealots, wagers of holy wars, primitive and irrational and at heart, anti-American.
Hollywood must realize that there is no one real truth to be found about any religious faith: this holds true for Islam. Unfortunately, terrorism, specifically Muslim terrorism against America, pays big money at the box office, and so these themes and images continue to win out in the theatre.
Autor*in
Rubina Ramji
Themen in »My Religion, Your Prejudice«
Islamfeindlichkeit Hollywood Orientalismus Islamophobia Hollywood Films Orientalism Islamic Misrepresentation in Popular Culture