Ep. 113: Hollywood & Anti-Muslim Racism (Part I) - Action and Adventure Schlock
Added 2020-07-08 15:37:17 +0000 UTCThe United States and its close allies Saudi Arabia and Israel have been bombing and occupying large sections of the so-called “Muslim world” for decades – drastically ramping up after the 9/11 attacks and seemingly with no end in sight. The U.S., like all empires, cannot operate a large, complex system premised on violence, meddling and subjugation without a moral pretext. This moral pretext, even before 9/11, was primarily about fighting a war on so-called “Terrorism” or “Islamic extremism” while allegedly promoting “stability,” “freedom” and “democracy.”
Along with American news media’s constant fear-mongering over scary Muslims lurking in the shadows, a major pillar propping up this moral pretext is pop culture – namely the cultural products coming out of Hollywood. Our decades-long "War on Terror" would no doubt be much more difficult to sustain without a constant reminder from TV and film that, despite the fact that the average American is more likely to be killed by a vending machine than a terrorist attack, the threat of Islamic terrorism remains ever-present and existential, marked by an inevitable “clash of civilizations” devoid of context or any notion that the U.S. is a primary driver of violence across the globe.
Over the course of three episodes, we'll be taking a look at how Hollywood’s television and studio film output helps prop up America’s military aggression in the Middle East, engages in both casual and explicit racism, strips conflicts of any historical or imperial context pushes the idea the only Good Muslim is a snitch or CIA agent, and generally leaves its audience angry and ill-informed.
In this episode, we review Hollywood’s long history of anti-Muslim racism in both classic and campy action/adventure films and TV and how it both primed us for – and sustains – the never-ending and self-perpetuating "War on Terror."
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Show Notes
Jack G. Shaheen | Winter 2015 | The Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Haqq and Hollywood: Illuminating 100 years of Muslim Tropes And How to Transform Them
Dr. Maytha Alhassen | October 2018 | Pop Culture Collaborative
How Cannon Films Demonizes Arabs
Andrew Stewart | December 25, 2015 | Counterpunch
The Anti-Palestinian Propaganda You Don’t Know You’re Consuming
Iasmin Omar Ata | January 18, 2019 | The Nib
Abusing Religion: Race, Islam, and Not Without My Daughter
Megan Goodwin | May 29, 2019 | The Revealer
The Not Without My Daughter Problem: How a Sally Field Movie Became an Iranian-American Headache
Gazelle Emami | January 11, 2016 | Vulture
Arab-Americans Protest 'True Lies'
July 16, 1994 | The New York Times
Aimee Miller | July 22, 1994 | The Washington Post
Lindy West | January 6, 2015 | The Guardian
Yemenis, Arabs Find ‘Rules of Engagement’ Anything But Engaging
Khaled Al-Mahdi | May 2, 2000 | IPS
Whatever It Takes: The Politics of the Man Behind “24.”
Jane Mayer | February 12, 2007 | The New Yorker
How Jack Bauer Shaped U.S.Torture Policy
Dahlia Lithwick | July 25, 2008 | Newsweek
Hey Hollywood, it’s time to stop stereotyping Arabs
Nasri Atallah | January 19, 2018 | Little White Lies
The 'towel-heads' take on Hollywood
Brian Whitaker | August 11, 2000 | The Guardian
Hollywood shoots Arabs: The movie
Khaled A Beydoun and Abed Ayoub | January 25, 2015 | Al Jazeera
“American Sniper” spawns death threats against Arabs and Muslims
Rania Khalek | January 22, 2015 | The Electronic Intifada
Jordan Saïd | January 23, 2018 | Front Row Central
Ridley Scott didn't want to cast "Mohammad so-and-so" in his movie about ancient Egypt
Alex Abad-Santos | November 26, 2014 | Vox
Rory Fanning | January 23, 2015 | Jacobin
As Oscars Near, 'American Sniper' Draws Protest
Ed Rampell | February 11, 2015 | The Progressive
“American Sniper” Chris Kyle Distorted His Military Record, Documents Show
Matthew Cole and Sheelagh McNeill | May 25 2016 | The Intercept
'Not Without My Daughter' is truthfully made, says woman who lived it
Lou Cedrone | January 17, 1991 | The Baltimore Evening Sun
'Not Without My Daughter' Subject Grows Up, Tells Her Own Story
Rachel Martin | November 29, 2015 | NPR Weekend Edition
Critic accuses Hollywood of vilifying Arabs
Tom Perry | May 1, 2008 | Reuters
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
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Comments
I listened to this pretty late, but man, what a great episode! I love when you guys discuss seemingly innocuous things, like schlocky Hollywood blockbusters, and expose the ideology behind them. I remember watching “Not Without My Daughter” years ago, as I got it for free from a closing movie rental store with a ton of other movies. I didn’t like it per say, but even as a sheltered white teen at the time it stuck out to me how overtly racist and Islamophobic the film was. Hell, I remember Sally Field actually saying “(Iran) is a backwards and primitive country”; I don’t want to rewatch it to check if that’s verbatim. I haven’t thought about it for years, but in retrospect it’s not surprising at all that it was used to push an anti-Muslim agenda.
JM
2020-07-18 05:58:51 +0000 UTCYes Matthew Alford is our guest for episode 3! We talk about this in the final installment
Citations Needed
2020-07-09 06:26:07 +0000 UTCThis is one of my absolute favourite subjects, as miserable as it is. I'm so stoked for this being a three part series: I've never been so excited for new reasons to get sad and angry. I know you've already recommended "How Everything Became War" on the show a while ago, but I highly recommend "National Security Cinema" as a companion piece to it. It's a short, punchy book: I definitely read it in a day, and I'm a slow reader. It's filled with a lot of practical examples that goes through the history of the Pentagon funding Hollywood directly, the role of the CIA liason offices, how Oprah and Cupcake Wars got Pentagon support at one point, etc. It highlights the fact that the first official involvement of the US military funding a Hollywood production was Birth of a Nation. One of the best lines from it; When The Agency writers asked if a technology the CIA liason was telling them to use actually existed, they were told it didn't but that; "Terrorists watch TV". The CIA advisors were also credited for The Agency episode ‘Peacemakers’, in which the CIA use a drone to kill a rogue Pakistani general who is trying to start a war with India. Only weeks after this episode aired a real Predator drone was used to kill a Pakistani general.
Ross James
2020-07-09 06:20:24 +0000 UTCExcellent episode, but 1984 in Iran was not stable. The Regime famously clamped down on the tudeh party and other opposition and solidified the islamic character of the islamic revolution in 1984. But yeah, that's what the npr people meant.
Professor Jokes
2020-07-08 21:37:02 +0000 UTC
