Page 226 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Islam and the Med a | 0

a link that even films without Muslim characters can wheel them in to create a sense of dan-
ger, as for instance with the brief threat of Arab terrorists that bookends Back to the Future,
or as in The Insider, a film about the American tobacco industry, in which the credentials of
Al Pacino’s Lowell Bergman as a fearless reporter are established during the opening credits
by showing him blindfolded and surrounded by threatening Arabs taking him to interview
the leader of a terrorist organization in Lebanon. Meanwhile, on television, Children Now’s
“Fall Colors: Prime Time Diversity Report” reveals that in the 2003–2004 season, 46 percent
of all Arab/Middle Eastern characters on prime time entertainment programs were crimi-
nals (compared to 15 percent of Asian/Pacific Islanders, 10 percent of African Americans,
and 5 percent of White characters), thereby leaving few other images to contradict the land-
slide of news and entertainment depictions of the Muslim bad guy (See http://publications.
childrennow.org/assets/pdf/cmp/fall-colors-03/fall-colors-03-v5.pdf).

PosT 9/11
Since 9/11, the demonization of Islam and of Muslims has only intensified.
One of the justifications for the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was the liberation
of Afghan women. This rationale has a long history in Orientalist rhetoric, and
asserts that Muslim women need to be rescued from Muslim men by White men
who better understand their interests. In reality, the condition for most Afghan
women, particularly those in the rural areas, only deteriorated after the U.S. war.
Domestically, thousands of Muslims and Arab Americans have been detained,
harassed, and deported since 2001. Such blatant violations of civil liberties are
justified by the argument that security threats must be quelled at any cost. Televi-
sion shows like 24 and Sleeper Cell reinforce the idea that there are enemies in our
midst who must be vanquished through any means necessary. The news media
have failed to expose the injustices faced by Muslims and have, for the most part,
accepted the so-called war on terror rhetoric. After 9/11, images of Middle East-
ern men were constantly shown on television, identified as Islamic extremists
and terrorists. Image and identifier merged and were generalized, helping to
codify Islam and terrorism in the eyes of the public, an association that already
existed in popular films and media depictions. At its root, this rhetoric casts the
world into two camps: the side that represents civilization, democracy, and ratio-
nality and the side that is intent on violence, destruction and the creation of an
Islamic state—Islam vs. the West. In many ways, the rhetoric in the media has
come full circle reflecting some of the key themes developed by early Oriental-
ist scholarship in the nineteenth century, in the process alienating and vilifying
Arabs, Arab-Americans, and other people of Middle Eastern descent.
see also Al-Jazeera; Bias and Objectivity; Hypercommercialism; Parachute
Journalism; Paparazzi and Photographic Ethics; Propaganda Model; Represen-
tations of Race; Sensationalism, Fear Mongering, and Tabloid Media; World
Cinema.

Further reading: Bernstein, Matthew, and Gaylyn Studlar, eds. Visions of the East: Oriental-
ism in Film. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997; Esposito, John. The