Frankie Reilly: It's hardly new for Hollywood to be used as part of America's state propaganda machine.

Its role has often been to dehumanise the "other" from the virtuous American hero.

From the savage Indians, fanatical Japanese and Germans, the slopes, gooks and dinks of Vietnam, to the brutal commies of Russia.

Interestingly when Hollywood has chosen to depict Irish terrorists their treatment has often been quite sympathetic.

Can't imagine the likes of Brad Pitt lining up to play the part of Jihadist, can you?

Mind you it's easier to be sympathetic with the Irish. They've no oil or land America or Israel wants to steal.

Hollywood plays a vital part in concocting the trigger-happy bogeyman Americans are always too eager to declare war upon, and to condition us into accepting their version of reality.

The bogeyman is dehumanized and made sub-human by the state’s propagandists, both essential elements in conditioning the populace into accepting destruction and murder of the enemy.

Now we have a newly minted enemy, the Arab bogeyman.

Years of conditioning by Hollywood vilifying Arabs had jump-started the American hatred of the Islamic culture, even before 9/11, planting the seeds of hatred and xenophobia that would fully sprout on the day catalyzing events unleashed a new American century and Americans were introduced to the dreaded Arab terrorist.

The dreaded Arab bogeyman, concocted as terrorist through years of state sponsored propaganda and manipulation, only fed into the historical hatred of people of color by xenophobic majorities.

Popular films ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to children's cartoons are depicting "crude and exaggerated" stereotypes of Muslims and perpetuating Islamophobia, according to a recently published study.

A report by the Islamic Human Rights Commission argues that films as diverse as The Siege, a portrayal of a terrorist attack on New York starring Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis, the Disney film Aladdin and the British comedy East is East have helped demonise Muslims as violent, dangerous and threatening, and reinforce prejudices.

While The Siege is attacked for inter-cutting Islamic ritual and terrorist violence, potentially linking the two in the minds of audiences, Aladdin faces criticism for depicting Arabs as "ruthless caricatures" with "exaggerated and ridiculous accents".

The study, titled The British media and Muslim representation: the ideology of demonisation, argues that Hollywood has a crucial role in influencing how the public views Muslims.

Repeated juxtaposition of Islamic ritual practices such as prayer in a mosque and the call to prayer from a minaret with scenes of exploding bombs and indiscriminate killing implies that "terrorist acts are intrinsic to Islamic beliefs and practices", the study argues.

Executive Decision, featuring a plane hijack by Palestinian terrorists, also shows terrorists reciting prayers before and after murdering innocent passengers, "almost defining terrorism as an Islamic ritual", it adds.

Other films criticised include Raiders of the Lost Ark, where, say the authors, the Egyptian backdrop is portrayed using a stereotyped shorthand including veiled women hurrying through bazaars to the sound of snake-charming music.

Hollywood has moved on from portraying all Arabs as villains.

Several recent films include one token 'good Arab' who likes the US.

I could not help but watch The Kingdom without feeling throughout that I had seen this all before many times.

The film uses the same tired, and sadly successful, Hollywood formula of so many of its predecessors: Arab villains, American heroes, and lots of weapons.

In The Kingdom, a major terrorist attack is committed in Saudi Arabia by Saudis, targeting American civilians and causing FBI agents to travel there to track down terrorist mastermind Abu Hamza.

There are two differences between the recent crop of such films and their older counterparts: they now employ real Arabs to perpetuate the old stereotypes, and they utilise a token Arab "good guy" to make up for the fact that the rest of the Arab characters are bad.

Tony Shalhoub in The Siege is a striking example, an Arab-American cop trying to stop Arab terrorist cells from continuing their large-scale bomb attacks on US soil.

The vast majority of the Arabs in The Kingdom, young and old, are portrayed negatively - from the brutal, hate-filled, anti-western, religiously fanatical terrorists, to the inept, corrupt, heavy-handed, secretive and frustratingly bureaucratic Saudi authorities.

The "good Arab" is Saudi Colonel Faris al-Ghazi, played by Israeli-Palestinian actor Ashraf Barhoum. He helps the FBI team and is fond of American culture, having grown up watching The Six Million Dollar Man and The Hulk, who was his inspiration in his career choice in law enforcement because the superhero "killed only the bad guys".

Al Ghazi is the only Arab in The Kingdom who we get to know and empathise with (this is even the case with Saladin and Prince Nasir in the far more balanced Kingdom of Heaven and Syriana, respectively).

On the other hand, we are exposed in depth to the humanity, grief, compassion, determination, ability and patriotism of most of the American characters.

The overall message of this gung-ho film is as simple as it is dangerous:

America's allies in the Middle East are unreliable and unstable, so whatever the objections and consequences, the US can and must project its power in the region to defend itself.

And safeguard its interests and secure justice against those who inherently seek the demise of the west and - we are reminded several times at the end of the film - Israel.

Put simply, The Kingdom perpetuates negative stereotypes for a quick buck and an adrenaline rush, at a time in the world where breeding such ignorance and prejudice has proven catastrophic.

This is not simply confined to the film. The media reported that the cast was treated "like royalty" in the United Arab Emirates - where the film was partly shot - with the main actor Jamie Foxx given security guards, paramedics, Rolls-Royce transport, a palatial hotel and even a food taster.

However, I recently watched him on The Daily Show being interviewed about his stay in the UAE.

He mocked the Arabic language and food, talking about eating "baked tiger paws" and "boiled camel hump." It seems it is not just audiences that are being brainwashed.

tags: hollywood  anti arab  propaganda  movies  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit