Reclaiming the Narrative: Muslim Stereotyping in Mainstream Media
Why Representation Matters
Scholar Jack G. Shaheen reflects, “Indeed, there are some bad Arabs and Muslims out there — but that goes for people of all races and religions. No one group has a monopoly on the good and innocent.” However, the oversaturation of Arab and Muslim antagonists in the media creates the illusion that the small minority of bad Arabs and Muslims are representative of the whole community. Shaheen comments that “this stereotype is so prevalent, so powerful, that people internalize it and, due to the absence of positive Arab and Muslim images in popular culture, cannot separate the reel from the real.”
Though stereotypes in the media may seem harmless, they have unignorable effects on how minorities are perceived. The ISPU found that only 38% of Americans know someone who is Muslim — therefore, the other 62% of individuals’ perceptions of Muslims are wholly defined by what they see on-screen, with negative stereotypes dominating their view of Islam.
Additionally, misconceptions in the media also have detrimental effects on the minorities being stereotyped. A report on black men conducted by The Opportunity Agenda revealed, “Negative media stereotypes (thugs, criminals, fools, and the disadvantaged) are demoralizing and reduce self-esteem and expectations. Dealing with negative expectations may also create stress and drain cognitive resources in some contexts — leading to the lowered performance associated with ‘stereotype threat.’”
Film and television may be easily brushed off as mere entertainment, but the truth is, what we watch shapes our perceptions of the world in a monumental way. Evidently, mainstream media can be a pivotal point to start in challenging the vilification of Muslims, both in fiction and reality.
The Riz Test
In 2017, actor and musician Riz Ahmed gave a landmark speech on representation and stereotyping in film and television to the UK’s House of Commons. His powerful words drove Shaf Choudry and Sadia Habib to develop “The Riz Test”. Similar to the Bechdel Test, the Riz Test sets certain standards for the depiction of Muslims in the media, calling for better representation in lieu of stereotyping.
This article examines the evolution of Muslim representation in film and television through the lens of the Riz Test, featuring examples that fail to meet its criteria in order to emphasize the importance of accurate representation in mainstream media.
Stereotype #1 and 2: Hollywood’s Association of Islam with Terrorism and Anger
The Bodyguard (2018-present)
In reflecting on The Bodyguard, Shaf Choudry (co-founder of the Riz Test) determined, “Not only does it [The Bodyguard] fail the Riz Test, but it fails all five criteria of the Riz Test within the first 12 minutes of the first episode, which is horrendous.”
Most critics of The Bodyguard focus on the characterization of a hijabi woman named Nadia. She is first introduced as wearing a suicide bomb vest, conforming to the “oppressed Muslim woman” stereotype. However, in a later episode, Nadia reveals that she played a much bigger role in the bombings than the protagonist had thought, commenting, “I am an engineer. I am a jihadi.” The writers of The Bodyguard may have negated the “oppressed Muslim woman” stereotype by revealing that the seemingly vulnerable Nadia is actually a terrorist, but this plot twist is far from empowering and does not deserve any praise. In fact, this shift carries the narrow-minded, dangerous implication that Muslims are inevitably linked to terrorism and violence. The Bodyguard puts Muslims in a box, switching one detrimental stereotype out for another.
Some may dismiss the stereotypes central to The Bodyguard’s narrative as harmless, but their influence on audience members’ perception of Islam is undeniable. Choudry added, “there’s been incidents in London where women wearing the hijab, the head scarf, on public transport have been shouted at [by people who] said: ‘Oh, are you Nadia? Do you have a bomb?’”, demonstrating viewers’ false assumption that Muslim characters on-screen are representative of all Muslims.
An over-saturation of stereotypes in the media has concrete effects that cannot be dismissed: the more stereotypes appear on-screen instead of complex depictions of Muslims, the harder it becomes for the audience to distinguish between fiction and reality.
Stereotype #3: The Depiction of Muslims as Anti-Modern
The Big Sick (2017)
At first glance, a Muslim protagonist in a rom-com like The Big Sick appears refreshing in contrast to the repeated depictions of Muslims as films’ violent antagonists. Though the premise of The Big Sick is undoubtedly progressive compared to many other films centered on Muslims, it creates an unnecessary binary. In forcing its protagonist to pick between either an American or Pakistani identity, the film furthers the assumption that modernity can only be acquired for Muslims through assimilation, which is inherently erroneous.
The film’s flaw is not the depiction of Kumail as a secular Muslim without a strong connection to heritage; rather, The Big Sick’s main fault is that the Muslim characters in the film are not given the same depth as the white characters. Though Kumail is not necessarily portrayed as “superstitious, culturally backwards or anti-modern”, his distancing from his family and culture furthers the stereotypical notion that Muslim families are anti-modern and deprives the film’s Muslim characters of any range. Throughout the entire film, Kumail’s family solely represents the cultural pressure he feels to accept an arranged marriage, with the value of his heritage left largely unexplored. The characterization of Kumail’s love interest’s family is treated with much more nuance than Kumail’s, relegating them to mere caricatures with no real place in the narrative.
Though the South Asian characters lacked depth throughout most of film, a key scene opposes the anti-modern stereotype associated with Muslims. In the scene, Kumail’s father calls his son out, commenting, “The American dream is not about yourself. You’re being selfish to Khadija, selfish to this girl.” However, the same treatment is not provided for the female characters, reinforcing writer Aditi Natasha Kini’s claim that, “…too often, Hollywood’s depictions of brown men amount to an erasure of brown women.” From Kumail’s mother to the Pakistani women he meets, the Muslim women in The Big Sick are one-dimensional and are deprived of any real complexity.
Though The Big Sick features heartfelt moments and profoundly depicts an interracial relationship, it is not wholly exempt of stereotypes. A Pakistani-led rom-com offers hope for Muslims being featured in a variety of genres, but the film is clouded by the wildly inaccurate belief that modernity and Islam cannot coexist in the United States.
Stereotype #4: A Threat on Western Lifestyle
Homeland (2011–2020)
Though well-received by critics as a compelling series, Homeland fundamentally promotes the idea that all Muslims are dangerous, no matter how “modern” they may seem on the outside.
This message was especially central to the characterization of Roya Hammad, a confident and successful reporter. Hammad is later revealed to have ties to a violent terrorist. Similar to The Bodyguard, this shift in characterization confines Muslims to an extremist narrative, falsely implying that any Muslim may be involved in terrorism — no matter how embedded in Western culture they may be.
Laila Al-Arian points out that Homeland “demonstrated ad nauseam that anyone marked as ‘Muslim’ by race or creed can never be trusted”, capturing the wider implications of the show’s Islamophobic message. For the 62% of Americans who do not know someone who is Muslim, mainstream media like Homeland promote misinterpretations of Islam and skepticism of Muslims’ true intentions.
Stereotype #5: Misogyny and Muslim Masculinity
Islam is derived from the Arabic root word salam, which means “peace”. But despite Islam’s emphasis on peace, the characterization of Muslim men in mainstream media is bombarded by notions of misogyny, promoting further misconceptions about Islamic teachings and the message of the Quran. Many films and TV shows fail to distinguish between what Islam promotes and what some Middle Eastern governments enforce. As a result, the mainstream media creates and perpetuates a false association of gender inequality with Islam itself when cultural, patriarchal practices are actually to blame.
In a 2017 study, Stanford University post-doctoral fellow Rochelle Terman wrote, “The results suggest that U.S. news media propagate the perception that Muslims are distinctly sexist, which in turn may shape public attitudes towards Muslims as well as policies that involve Muslims at home and abroad.” Terman also suggests the presence of confirmation bias affecting the portrayal of Muslim women, as “Muslim women (i.e. women from Muslim and/or Middle Eastern societies) are more likely to appear in the U.S. press if they live in societies with poor records of women’s rights, while non-Muslim women are more likely to appear if their rights are respected.”
The mainstream media’s narrow emphasis on gender discrimination among Muslims has disadvantageous consequences, including less coverage of 1) gender inequality in non-Muslim communities and 2) other issues affecting Muslim societies. Misconceptions about Islam, however, can be largely reduced if studios consult Muslim organizations and work with Muslim writers to craft nuanced characters instead of caricatures.
Stereotype #6: The “Oppressed Muslim Woman”
Elité (2018-present)
One may be quick to assume that movies and TV shows featuring Islamophobic stereotypes are mere relics by now. But shows like Elité reveal that there is still room for improvement in the area of Muslim representation.
Released in 2018, Spanish drama Elité continues to receive tremendous attention from Netflix viewers around the globe, with 20 million households streaming the show. Though it features complex character arcs, Elité’s treatment of Nadia Shanaa (played by Mina El Hammani) is widely criticized.
Compared to the wealthier students at her school, Nadia feels like an outsider: in addition to her spot at the school being earned through a scholarship, she is the only student who wears a hijab. At one point in the series, her school demands that she removes her hijab, which is reminiscent of many policies enacted in Europe over the past decade. In order to remain a student, Nadia ceases wearing her hijab on campus.
Though Nadia affirms that wearing a hijab is her choice, Elité glorifies her removal of her hijab in Season 2, characterizing it as a moment of liberation for her. Nadia appears in a nightclub without her hijab, capturing the romantic attention of her classmates. Through this scene, Elité antagonizes the choice to wear a hijab, demonstrating it to be a symbol of oppression.
In reality, many Muslim women wear a hijab out of personal choice. According to a survey conducted by the ISPU in 2018, “99 percent of respondents indicated personal reasons for wearing hijab, such as piety or the desire to be identified as Muslim.”
Elité characterizes the hijab as a burden on Muslim women, needlessly skewing viewers’ perception of hijabi women in an unconstructive and inaccurate way.
Conclusion
An over-saturation of negative stereotypes in film and television creates a false illusion of what Islam truly represents. As writer Amanda Taub points out,
“Middle Eastern and Muslim actors are rarely if ever cast to play romantic leads, or brilliant scientists, or high school mean girls, or varsity football heroes or good wives or bad husbands. They’re stuck reading for one- dimensional terrorist roles over and over again. That’s not just offensive, it’s an absurd misrepresentation of American life.”
Despite Islam being a religion that promotes peace, many examples of mainstream media reduce the expansive, unique community of Muslims to a stereotype characterized by extremism and cultural backwardness.
To read about positive examples of Muslim representation in mainstream media, check out Part 2!
