Muslim Representation in Cinemas Essay

Racial imagery is one of the most important setbacks to the modern social development. The grouping based on white and non-white mostly affects the globalization and communalism in the modern society (Dyer 1). The eastern world that is the Middle East, South, and East Asian cultures form part of the racial imagery depicted in most cinemas especially Hollywood ones (Dyer 3). Middle Eastern politics, therefore, is the most depicted themes in modern cinemas due to their influence in world histories such as the war on its countries like Iraq and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts (Khatib 1). These negative depictions tarnish the image of Middle East countries and cultures through cinema (Jhally). This paper, therefore, evaluates the depiction of Muslim figure in cinemas together with discourses revolving around the Muslim culture.

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Islam is the most practiced religion in the Middle East as the depiction in cinemas. This, therefore, makes Muslim an important culture topic when it comes to orientalism. The cinemas depict the Muslim culture all the way from the language, dressing, and their association with one another. As depicted in Sut Jhally in his documentary 'Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People," the middle eastern people cover their heads symbolizing their inheritance culture (Jhally). Another system of representation in most cinemas is the language. According to Hall (19), language is one of the ways of representing cultures virtually using signs and images.

The American cinemas represent the Middle East as the center of conflicts and terrorist activities worldwide. Cinemas, as described by Khatib, are the most critical tool used in representing cultures. Hollywood cinemas, therefore, consider this as an opportunity to represent the Muslim culture as a violent culture. The Middle East politics is a worldwide debate due to a number of conflicts and wars in the region such as those between Palestinians and Israeli, the Iraq war, and the increased conflicts among themselves such as Iraq and Iran wars. Hollywood being the most popular film in the world represents the conflict encountered the Middle East thereby educating people of the imagination of the region. On the same note, the 1998 "The Siege" film by Edward Zwick shows the terrorist attack in New York City (Zwick). The film, therefore, forms the most popular ways of representing different cultures based on stereotyping. The Islamic militants according to the film unleash bombing attacks in Brooklyn bus which killed many people. Although it is fictional, it depicts the violent nature of Muslims (Zwick).

Besides Hollywood films, there are a number of films representing the Muslim culture from a cinematic representation although at a lesser magnitude. This film includes Egyptian cinema, Palestinian cinema, Syria, Morocco, Lebanon, and Algerian cinemas among others (Khatib 2). The theme of war depicted in the Arabian films represents the historical Middle Eastern politics all the way from Arab nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism to conflict between Arab and Israeli together with the Gulf war. The conflict theme depicted in these film both from an Arab perspective and American perspective contributes to a larger percentage of the understanding of the violent nature of Muslims.

Arguably Arabs representation in American film depicts them as savage or bandits. In the 'Reel Bad Arab' film, Jack Shaheen evaluated the American film and concluded that the Arabic culture represented in those films represents them as bandits and those engaging in evil activities (Jhally). Mostly, Arabs are depicted with guns in their hands which are a symbol of terrorist activities from bandits' perspectives. This is a negative stereotyping associating Arabs with conflicts and war activities. Additionally, many discourses on Arabs association with conflicts date back to the 1990 United States military operations in the area. The Arabs had caused chaos and conflicts in the Persian Gulf disrupting growth and development in the region. In response to the chaos, American presidents called for a United States military operation to improve security and stability in the Persian Gulf. From President Roosevelt all the way to President Reagan, their main aim was to decrease the influence of Muslim bandits creating insecurity and economic instability in the region (McAlister 236). From this discourses and Shaheen analysis of American film, Muslim culture is bandit and violence related.

The American society has a negative implication of Muslim culture from a number of cinematic representation of the Arabs. In a national survey published in Los Angeles Times by John Dart on the perception of religious practices on influencing United States society, Muslim had a negative influence. Christians, Jews, and Mormons had positive reception attributed to their positive influence in US society (Shaheen 24). On the other hand, Muslim had negative influence from the perspective people had in watching American films. The negative perception of the Muslim associates with political issues, ignorance, as well as vilifying Arabs by producers of the films. The extreme minority and violent representation of Arabs in the film make Arabs appear as an enemy to the public through anti-Christians and anti-Jewish terrorist activities (Shaheen 24).

Moreover, Muslim culture representation in the film relates them to nomadic lifestyle (Jhally). Arabs based on their historical understanding were nomadic people associated with desert lifestyle. Besides violent and minority representation, the cinemas play a major role in understanding the nomadic lifestyle of the ancient Arabs. In the groundbreaking documentary 'Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People' by Jhally, Shaheen evaluates the representation of Arabs as a nomadic race. This representation dates to the silent ancient cinema to the present Hollywood cinemas. Reportedly this shows the Arabs far from science and civilization due to the cinematic representation of Muslim culture with Tents and camel imagery representations. This is to say it represents the Bedouin character found in most Arabic states (Jhally).

Another discourse around Muslim figure represented in the film is the arrogant Arabic culture full of nervousness and women repressive with limited emotion and romance (Jhally). The repressive nature of Arab women is depicted from the belly dancing for sheiks showing the superiority of men in Arab culture. Modern cinema depicts the use of Arab women in terrorist activities which portrays the negative image of the Arab women when in fact they are equal to other women in the world in all fields (Jhally).

Conclusion

Cinemas play a major role in representing cultural imagery in the society. Silent and modern cinema has played a role in stereotyping Muslim from all cultural angles. Cinemas represent Muslims as violent and conflict associated with shootings, explosions, and attacks among other evil activities. They also associate Muslim with no civilization and science from tent and camel images. Lastly, cinemas portray Muslims as gender bias due to their repressive nature on women. The films have therefore contributed to a large extent in degrading Arab imagery, and this negatively influences people's perception of Muslims.

Works Cited

Dyer, Richard. "the matter of whiteness." white, Routledge, 1997, pp. 1-14.

Hall, Stuart. "the work of representation." Cultural representation and signifying practices, Sage Publications, 1997, pp. 19-30.

Khatib, Lina. "Orientalism and the cinematic middle east." Filming the modern middle east, I.B Tauris & Co. Ltd, 206, pp. 1-13.

McAlister, Melani. "Military Multiculturalism in the Gulf War and After 1990-1999." Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and the US interest in the Middle East, 1945-2000, University of California Press, 2001, pp. 255-276. p

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People. Directed by Sut Jhally, 2006.

Shaheen, Jack G. Hollywood's Muslim Arabs. Spring, 2000. pp. 22-42 ISSN: 0027-4909

The Siege. Directed by Edward Zwick, 1998. 1998.