Hollywood's Arab Stereotypes and Representation

The Arab Revolution Arabs are the most maligned group in the history of Hollywood. They're portrayed basically as subhumans, untermenschen, a term used by Nazis to vilify gypsies and Jews. These images have been with us for more than a century. country. For 30 years, I've looked at how we, particularly when I say we, image makers, have projected Arabs on silver screens. In my latest book, Real Bad Arabs, How Hollywood Vilifies a People, I looked at more than 1,000 films. Films ranging from the earliest, most obscure days of Hollywood to today's biggest blockbuster. And what I tried to do is to make visible what too many of us seem not to see. A dangerously consistent pattern of hateful Arab stereotypes. Stereotypes that rob an entire people of their humanity. All aspects of our culture project the Arab as villain. That is a given. There is no deviation. We have taken a few structured images and repeated them over and over again. You are hostages of the Holy Freedom Party. Whether one lives in Paducah, Kentucky, or Wood River, Illinois, we know basically the same thing. Listen to the sound of our talk. We know the mythology, namely Hollywood's images of Arabs. We inherited the Arab image primarily from Europeans. In the early days, you know, maybe 150 years, 200 years ago, the British and the French who traveled to the Middle East and those who didn't travel to the Middle East. conjured up these images of the Arab as the Oriental other. The travel writers, the artists who fabricated these images and who were very successful as a matter of fact. And these images were transmitted and inherited by us. We took them, we embellished them, and here they are. When you cross the mountains of the moon into our country, Mr. Tirole, you will be stepping back 2,000 years. We have this fictional setting called Arabland, a mythical theme park. And in Arabland, you know, you have the ominous music, you have the desert. We start with the desert, always the desert as a threatening place. We add an oasis. palm trees a palace has a torture chamber in the basement the pasha sits there on his you know polished christian with harem maidens surrounding him is the man none of the harem maidens pleasing soon they have dr jack one heroine from the west who doesn't want want to be seen as the founding of the state of israel nineteen when you visit our support has never way must be aware of the internet and i'll be very quick and we have we have the property masters of hollywood planning women's belly dancing outfits they're giving the arab villains samitars It's long, long cemeteries. We see people riding around on magic carpets. Turban charmers programming snakes in and out of baskets. Yesteryear's Arab land is today's Arab land. You. are late. A thousand apologies, oh patient one. You have it then. I had to slit a few throats, but I got it. Disney's Aladdin was seen by millions of children worldwide. It was hailed as one of Disney's finest accomplishments. But the film recycled every old degrading stereotype from Hollywood's silent black and white past. Oh, I come from a land from a faraway place With a caravan camera Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face, it's barbaric, but hey, it's home. Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face, it's barbaric, but hey, it's home. Now, how could a producer with a modicum of intelligence, just a modicum of sensitivity, let a song such as that open the film? But this moves way beyond one song. You must be hungry. Here you go. You'd better be able to pay for that. Do you know what the penalty is for stealing? No! No, please! The Arab is one-dimensional caricature, cartoon cutouts used by filmmakers as stock villains and as comic relief. And so over and over we see Arabs in movies portrayed as buffoons, their only purpose being to deliver cheap laughs. You see this in the Joey Heatherton film, The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington. Every night I was forced to perform unspeakable acts with circumcised dogs. Dogs are better than sheep. They're cleaner, I know, I've tried that. And over and over again they're portrayed as inept. So, in a movie like True Lies, not only are the Arabs dangerous, they're also incompetent. We are all prepared to die. One turn of that key, two million of your people will die instantly. What key? That key! Who's taken the key? One actor who excels in his portrayal of Arabs as buffoons is Jamie Farr in Cannonball Run 2. I have a weakness for blondes and women without mustaches. All the stereotypes are here. Too rich and stupid to know the value of money. Get me 12 sweets. Better yet, the entire floor. And of course he's oversexed, lecherous, uncontrollably obsessed with the American woman. He Here, my desert blossom, give the change. Have you ever considered joining a harem? And so another pattern is the lecherous Arab. In Jewel of the Nod, Sheikh Omar tricks Kathleen Turner. How? He convinces her to come with him to Arab land. Then he imprisons her. You stay here and you write what I tell you to write. We see the same sort of ominous seduction and protocol. The entire plot revolves around an Arab Emir's infatuation with the blonde, blue-eyed, Goldie Hawn. In the Bond film Never Say Never Again, again. Kim Basinger is abused by the most sleazy-looking Arabs imaginable. She's tied to a pole, stripped to her underwear, and auctioned off to primitive-looking Bedouins. And in Sahara, Brooke Shields is also kidnapped and presented to the lecherous Arab sheikh for his own perverted pleasure. Get away from me, you dirty bitch! More than 300 movies, nearly 25% of which were made in the United States. of all Hollywood movies that in one way or another demean Arabs contain gratuitous slurs or they portray Arabs as being the butt of a cheap... We were going on a meccasy and the plane is full of Arabs with these animals. Goats, sheep, chickens. I mean they don't go anywhere without their goddamn animals. We had to put plastic in the cabins. You know, they urinate, they defecate. You have films by Neil Simon like Chapter 2, the beginning of the film. The protagonist arrives back from London and his brother says, How was London? And he says, Full of Arabs. How was London? Full of Arabs. Arabs. Well, imagine if he had said, full of blacks, full of Jews, full of Hispanics. I mean, that's ridiculous. Why do we do these things? We got a bite. One of the most offensive films with the gratuitous images, Father of the Bride 2. It features Steve Martin selling his house to a Mr. Habib. We like house very much. When you can move out. Excuse me? The Habibs would like to buy the house, George. It's exactly what they've been looking for. It's when you can move. We need how house a week from Wednesday and my wife wants flour dishes in kitchen. You sell, we pay top dollar. When Habib's submissive wife tries to speak, he shouts gibberish at her. And then he offers Martin a $15,000 cash bonus to move out in 10 days. When Martin tells Mr. Habib that he doesn't want to sell the house after all, he finds Habib's wrecking crew there, ready to demolish it. his beautiful home. And in a scene that calls to mind one of the most degrading stereotypes of the Jewish people, Mr. Habib demands an extra $100,000 to sell the house that he has owned for just a day back to Martin. Want me to take out a loan on something I own free and clear just 24 hours ago? Well, that is up to you, George. Your path, your fence, your memories. Now, if you looked at the other Father of the Bride films, Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy, there were no Arabs or Arab Americans. So why does Disney inject these horrific, sort of offensive characters in Father of the Bride Part 2? It's the same reason that in Gladiator, the slave traders who kidnapped Russell Crowe and bring him back to Rome are Arabs. I mean, this is ridiculous. I mean, why does Hollywood inject Arabs, scenes of Arabs, and or slurs demeaning Arabs in movies having nothing to do with the Middle East? So you're sitting like I am, for example, watching Back to the Future, about a mad scientist. And yet, early on in his life, in the film, we'd see these ugly, inept Libyans with machine guns in a parking lot trying to gun down the protagonist. I mean, why? This movie wasn't about the future. It was the same old stereotyping from the past. And the same goes for Hollywood's view of Arab women. The Arab woman today is bright, intelligent. She's someone who is exceeding in all professions. And yet this reality still is being... denied us on silver screens. The highly sexualized belly dancer has been with us from the beginning of Hollywood's history, inspired by early images of the Orient as the place of exoticism, intrigue, and passion. But in recent years, this image has dramatically changed. The Arab woman is now projected as a bomber, a terrorist. Added to this image is what I call bundles in black. Veiled women in the background, in the shadows, submissive. It seems the more Arab women advance, the more Hollywood keeps them locked in the past. Politics and Hollywood's images are linked. They reinforce one another. Policy enforces mythical images. Mythical images help enforce policy. Jack Valente, president of the Motion Picture Association, of America has said, quote, Washington and Hollywood spring from the same DNA, end quote. The Arab image began to change immediately after World War II. There were three things that impacted the change. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, in which the United States has unequivocally supported Israel. The Arab oil embargo in the 70s, which angered Americans when gas prices went through the ceiling. And the Iranian revolution, which increased Arab-American tensions when Iranian students took American diplomats hostage for more than a year. These three. These three pivotal events brought the Middle East into the living rooms of Americans, and together helped shape the way movies stereotyped Arabs and the Arab world. One of the primary changes, the image of the Sheikh. In movies such as Roll Over, he's out to take over the world with his money, or he's up to no good trying to buy chunks of America. Mrs. Winters, I think I should tell you there are those in the family in the family who do not think we should be making this offer at all. I assume if you could have found venture capital of this sort for a company like Winterchem in America, you would not be coming all the way to Arabia looking for it. You see the oily sheikh in Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. You see the money-grubbing sheikh who's out to commit all kinds of terrorism and launch a missile in earnest in the army. Gentlemen, behold my special club, the Pluton missile. With it, I will bring the infidels to their knees and be leader in the Arab world. One of the myths in the 70s was that the Arabs are coming over, buying up. chunks of America. And of course, this was reflected in the cinema. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. One of my favorite movies of all time, racist though it may be, is Network, about commercial television. Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it. How do you feel? Network features a TV anchor The rising of Superstar. Howe, he unleashes wild rants against the system on the air. But he directs the angriest of all his rants at Arabs, who he says are buying up America. They're buying it for the Saudi Arabian Investment Corporation. They're buying it for the Arabs. The anchor, Howard Beale, calls on the American people to rise up and stop the Arab buyout of his TV network. Listen to me, God damn it. The Arabs are simply buying us. There's only one thing that can stop them. You. The rage of Americans in response became one of the most famous scenes in movie history. I want you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and write a telegram to President Ford saying I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore. This kind of anger, the anger born of fear, all of it in response to a perceived conspiracy and threat by a specific group of people, well, we've seen and heard this before. If we look at the anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazis, at its core is an identical type of economic threat. This economic myth even made its way into children's books. Sadly, the popular image of Jews and Nazi propaganda resembles the popular image of Arabs in some of our most beloved Hollywood movies. The only difference being that the Arab usually wears a robe and headdress. Another way we can look at the connection between politics and entertainment, Washington and Hollywood, is the manner in which historically cinema has projected the Palestinian people. Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, our support has never wavered. Every American administration has made it clear whose side we're on. In contrast, Washington's policymakers have failed to support the millions of Palestinians who have been made refugees and who have lived lives of poverty and squalor as a result. While policies impact opinions, so equally unjust is how Hollywood has presented the conflict. Movies repeatedly depict Palestinians as terrorists. Making it seem that all Palestinians are evil. Made in America, Colonel. Now that image has been perpetuated by Hollywood films, beginning with the film Exodus. It dealt with the very early conflict. Here, Palestinians are either invisible or they're linked with Nazis, perpetrators of horrific acts. The 1966 movie Cast a Giant's Shadow is another... early film presenting Israelis as innocent victims of Palestinian violence. Kirk Douglas is an American military specialist and he goes to assist the Israelis. Some of the dialogue in this film reads like it came straight from the public relations department of the Israeli government. Here's a country surrounded by five Arab nations ready to shove them into the Mediterranean. No guns, no tanks, no friends, nothing. People fighting with their bare hands for a little piece of desert. The Palestinians in this movie are the lowest of the low. We see them solely as vicious gunmen, wide-eyed maniacs. They will kill anyone, anywhere, anytime, for any reason. There's one brutal image in particular, of a burnt-out bus with a dead Jewish woman tied to its side, with the Star of David carved into her back. And when the Palestinians finally speak, they mock and psychologically terrorize another woman trapped in a bus. Well, if we jump forward a decade to the film Black Sunday, the Palestinian terrorist is now a woman. Striking where it hurts them most. Where they feel most at home. She flies the Goodyear blimp into a Miami stadium and tries to wipe out 80,000 Americans at the Super Bowl. She whole-bloodedly eliminates anyone in her path. The movies that we see basically follow Washington's policy. It's reflected in the cinema over and over again, particularly during the 1980s and the 90s, where you had perhaps 30 films which showed... showed Palestinians as a people who were intent on injuring all Americans. How may we help you, Jack? One of the most despicable portrayals of Arabs and Palestinians occurs in the 1987 film Death Before Dishonor. First they murder a guard, and then slaughter an Israeli family. They kidnap and torture an American Marine, and in cold blood, execute another. And they burn the American flag right in front of the American embassy and then dispatch a suicide bomber to blow it up. One reason we've not been allowed to empathize with any Palestinian on the silver screen is due to two Israeli producers, Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus. These two filmmakers created an American... company called Canon and they released in a period of 20 years at least 30 films which vilify all things Arab, particularly Palestinians. They even came out with a film called Hell Squad showing Vegas show girls trouncing Arabs in the middle of the desert. I think the most effective film they've ever done, one of the most popular and most racist, is the Delta Force. Here Palestinians hijack a plane and terrorize the passengers, especially the Jewish ones. out the passport with Jewish names. There is no form of communication more powerful than film in creating propaganda. And Golan and Globus took it to another level. Certainly American producers play a role in vilifying Palestinians. I mean, perhaps the most anti-Palestinian film is Trulon. This apparently is the same group which just detonated a nuclear bomb in the Florida Keys. Crimson Jihad will rain fire on one major U.S. city each week until our demands are met. This film is shown on television almost every week, over and over again. It is part of our visual heritage. Give me the key! Come on, child! You don't want to die, do you? Give me the key! And you won't get hurt! I give you my word! No way, you wacko! And we never see, never see, Palestinians who suffer under occupation, Palestinians in refugee camps, Palestinians who are victimized, who are killed, innocent Palestinians. images are denied us. Now why are they denied us? Is there an unwritten code in Hollywood saying we cannot and will not humanize Palestinians? I mean why can't we humanize Palestinians in the same manner in which we humanize Israelis? Is not the life of a Palestinian child media-wise, Hollywood-wise, politically-wise, as important, as humane, as valuable as the life of a Palestinian as the life of an Israeli child? And if the answer to that is yes, why can't we see that on silver screens? To solidify Washington's connection with Hollywood, simply look at the films produced in cooperation with the Department of Defense, showing our men and women in the armed forces killing Arabs at random. Like Iron Eagle, where a teenager goes over and bombs up an Arab country. You know, just learns how to fly a jet overnight. And then, of course, Navy SEALs with Charlie Sheen. goes over to Lebanon and obliterates scores of Arabs. All right, Chief. Let's go tag him and bag him. Of all the Department of Defense films, the one that will stand the test of time as being the most racist is Rules of Engagement. Oh, man! Oh, man! The film was written by former Secretary of the Navy, James Webb. The action takes place in Yemen, a real country in the Middle East. There are violent demonstrations at the American embassy, and the Marines, led by Samuel L. Jackson, they're called in to evacuate the American employees. And as they try to do so, the Marines open fire on the crowd and kill scores of Yemenis, including women and children. And in the investigation follows Tommy Lee Jones, the lawyer who represented represents the Samuel Jackson character, goes to Yemen to investigate. The movie leads us to believe what seems obvious, that the Marines committed this atrocity. Armed American Marines, they were shooting at his people. They were just trying to defend themselves. During his investigation, Jones' character sees a little girl with only one leg. He follows her, comes upon a hospital ward full of civilian victims. He finds an audio tape by the bed of one of the victims. And when the tape gets translated in court, we immediately begin changing our minds about who is responsible for this massacre. to kill Americans and their allies both. civil and military is duty of every Muslim who is able. We discovered that the Yemeni civilians aren't so innocent after all. It turns out they fired on the Marines first. And in a moment that will live in Hollywood infamy, we suddenly learned that the local girl was a woman. and sympathize with. The very girl whose humanity and innocence may have broken down our stereotypes, well, she's no better than those other Yemeni terrorists. As a result, when Samuel L. Jackson and delivers the key line. Waste of motherfuckers! We're now on his side. Why does this matter? Because in the end, the massacre of even women and children has been justified and applauded. It's a slaughter, yes, but it's a righteous slaughter. Sergeant Mack. Sir? Contact all stations. Mission complete. The humanity is not there. And if we cannot see the Arab humanity, what's left? If we feel nothing, if we feel that Arabs are not like us, or not like anyone else, then let's kill them all. Then they deserve to die, right? What's the outcome? What do Arabs think of us that see these movies? Because these movies are... 25 cents American in Egypt. Movies showing us killing them. What do they walk away with? Does this bring us closer together? Does this advance peace? Or does it separate us? You're fired. Islamophobia now is a part of our psyche. Words such as Arab and Muslim are perceived as threatening words. And if the words are threatening, what about the images that we see in the cinema and on our television screens? We are at war with Iraq. We went to war in March of 2003. But didn't our entrance to the war, wasn't that made a lot easier, primarily because for more than a century we had been vilifying all things Arab? And now, given what happened with 9-11, the tragic events that took place on that day, where 19 Arab Muslim terrorists were responsible for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. Now, instead of... of saying that's the lunatic fringe we say no no no no the actions reflect the actions of 1.3 billion people now that's dangerous we don't say that the actions of ku klux klan members who are christian Christians represent Christianity, do we? Look at Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh, a good Irish Catholic boy. Do we say all Irish Catholics are terrorists? No one knew McVeigh's religious beliefs, where he went to church, or his ethnic background. It was not part of the story. Yet, of course, had that been an American with Arab roots or an American Muslim, it would have been a part of the story. Remember that when news of the bomb bombing broke, reporters and politicians, nearly everybody, rushed to judgment without any proof whatsoever. The U.S. government source told CBS News that it has Middle East terrorism written all over it. The attack in Oklahoma City appears to have a familiar mark. This was done with the attempt to inflict as many casualties as possible. That is a Middle Eastern trait. The fact that it was such a powerful bomb in Oklahoma City immediately drew investigators to consider deadly parallels that all have roots in the Middle East. ABC News has learned that the FBI has asked the U.S. military to provide up to 10 Arabic speakers to help in the investigation. The stereotype has become so widespread. It's become invisible to people and the reason being is that we've all grown up with these images. Just look at television. We now have TV shows telling us that in addition to the Arab terrorists over there. Where American Arabs over here are also terrorists. Then there's Showtime's sleeper cell. Here a sinister network of Islamic groups operates on American street corners. Any homeless man could be part of this network. Even Western-looking Arabs are part of this anti-American conspiracy. We're at war with America, period. And we're going to win that war. By convincing enough Americans through the spread of fear, insecurity and terror to change their ways. And the best way to teach that lesson is by attacking them where they live, work and play. And this paranoia runs deep. Just take a moment and flip through some of our most popular religious channels. Islam, a religion of two billion members. that's growing by 50 million people annually. Nearly every major terrorist network in the world is led by Islamic fundamentalists. Islam is, as we have seen, a religion that teaches the violent subjugation of all non-Muslims. It promises paradise to terrorists and makes the vilest deed a thing of beauty in the eyes of Allah. So, when innocent Arabs are killed, when they're bombed, maimed, wounded, when they're tortured in places like Abu Ghraib, is it really any surprise that we don't feel any compassion? Or worse, make light of it? This is no different to what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it, and we're going to hamper our military effort. You ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of me to blow some steam off? Well, yeah, sort of like hazing, a fraternity prank, sort of like that kind of fun. But the point is, everybody's been saying that this came from the top. We don't care about them. We've been preconditioned to think that those innocent civilians, clones of Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, are one and the same and do not merit our sympathy, our understanding. And that's very dangerous. According to the FBI, hate crimes in America targeting Muslims or people who just appear to be Middle Eastern surged in the aftermath of 9-11. Since 9-11, if you are an Arab American or a Muslim American and you go to an airport... you're automatically profiled. Numerous thousands of Muslim Americans were rounded up and detained without due process. Many people, particularly immigrants, lost their jobs. This college student who asked not to be identified says a recent meeting with police left him feeling like a criminal. I was just very scared, anxious, nervous. And I just wanted to get it over with. He was one of several thousand men of mostly Arab descent who were interviewed. So there is this cloud, you know, with the hate crimes, with the profiling, with being rounded up. Again, I think this illustrates the power of film. That in spite of the reality, in spite of the material that we know to be true, we still embrace the mythology. The mythology is still a part of our psyches. Stereotypes take a long time to wither away. And for many of us, we're comfortable with our prejudices. We don't want to change. We've grown accustomed to this face. When we think of Arabs, what do we see? What images come to mind? Do we see actual people? People who, despite real cultural or geographical differences, do pretty much the same things that we do? When we think of Arab women, what images come to mind? Do we see women who laugh and play and who adore their children? Women who work in the home as well as outside? Would it come as a surprise to know that in many Arab countries, a majority of college students are actually women? What's our immediate image of Arab men? Do we see loving fathers? Men who want to provide? provide for their families? What about Arab teenagers? Do we see them the way you would think about teenagers in other parts of the world? Then there's religion in the Arab world. Do we see it as all-encompassing, dominating everything else? Do we know that even though faith plays a huge role in the Arab world, just as it does here in the United States? that it's also true that much of the Arab world is quite secular? When we think of Arabs and religion, does Christianity come to mind? Do we remember that there are over 20 million Christians in the region? who have lived side by side in harmony with Muslims for centuries? To their credit, some filmmakers have shown Arabs and American Arabs in all their complexities an excellent way to shatter a stereotype. is through laughter, through comedy. So we have comedians. Comedians have done this historically, black comedians, Jewish comedians. So we see Arab comedians doing this, and this is one way to release the tension. I'm paying for a credit card, true story. Guy Van the Count picked up my credit card, sees the aisle apart, looks at me all weird. He's like, hey, buddy, what kind of name is that? I'm like, well, sir, it's an Arabic name. He goes, what does this mean? So I'm like, well, translate it to English. It means peaceful, friendly Arab. But he's not happy because, you know, what Arab country is your family from? He's trying to find the most peaceful, proper one that he would like. So I'm like, we're from the same Arab country that Aladdin is from. To his credit, Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9-11 in the DVD includes a scene with this comedy coming out. My name really is Ahmed Ahmed, and I can't fly anywhere. all you white people have it easy you guys get to the airport like an hour two hours before your flight takes me a month and a half security's gotten so bad now i just drove to the airport in a g-string i'm like hey The character I read for was terrorist number four, not number one, not number two, number four. And I was already well into my comedy career at this point, so I didn't take it that serious. And I read my lines way over the top, and, you know, it was like, Satan, you will obey, or I'll kill you in the name of Allah, you know, stuff like that. And the director went nuts and he was like, that was brilliant Ahmad. Let me see you do it again, but this time with more, you know, Arab, you know how your people are very, you know, he's trying to say that we're angry. like okay angry is that what you want yes yes so i did it one more time and i got a call the next morning that they want to use me in this movie and i started laughing on the phone because i wasn't even like i was making fun of the part of the role i wasn't trying to be like that and they and that's what they want though and once we begin to humanize arabs and muslims to project them as we project other people, no better, no worse, than the stereotype gradually gradually diminishes. In movies such as A Perfect Murder, we see an Arab-American detective, the friend, the heroine. Then there's Three Kings, a movie I served as a consultant on. The action occurs during the first Gulf War in 1991. The film is notable for revealing the complexities of the Iraqi people, focusing on these Iraqis that Saddam Hussein wants to kill. How's your little girl? She's safe from now. Outstanding, excellent. How can we help you? There's mutual respect in this film and there's also Iraqis who are loyal to Saddam Hussein. It's not a sugar-coated film. It's a very realistic film. It's an outstanding film in my opinion. Kingdom of Heaven, which focuses on the Crusades, was a tremendous hit overseas not here in the United States United States. And when the film was shown in Beirut, particularly at the end, when Salah Hadeen takes over Jerusalem, there's peace between Muslim and Christian, he enters a church and there is an icon on the floor. Salah Hadeen sees the icon, respectfully picks it up and places it back on the altar. When audiences in Beirut saw that, they rose to their feet and applauded. We're talking about Muslims as well as Christians applauding the act of a Muslim who embraces religious tolerance. There is this need of Arab audiences to embrace American films that show them in a respectful honest fair manner and with the release of George Clooney's Syriana I hope I hope that Hollywood is listening. The film has some unflattering yet honest depictions of Arabs, but it also presents an Arab prince as one of the film's few decent human beings. The British educated prince wants to bring democracy to his country, and his ideals get him and his family murdered. I want to create a parliament. I want to give women the right to vote. I want an independent judiciary. I want to start a petroleum exchange in the Middle East. I'll put all of our energy up for competitive bidding. I'll run pipe through Iran to Europe, like you proposed. I'll ship to China. Anything that achieves efficiency and maximizes profit. Profit which... which I will then use to rebuild my country. Great. That's exactly what you should do. Exactly. Except, your president rings my father and says I've got unemployment in Texas, Kansas, Washington State. One phone call later, we're stealing out of our social programs in order to buy overpriced airplanes. Another example of this kind of humanity and respect is found in Hideous Kinky, a film about an English woman, played by Kate Winslet and her two daughters in Morocco. Winslet's relationship with her Moroccan lover... is beautifully and lovingly displayed. And when she doesn't have the money to return home to England with her daughters, he makes hard sacrifices to make it happen. There's a tender and moving scene at the end. The Moroccan catches up with the train they're on to say goodbye, to wish them well. We see the warmth and love that exists between them. And nowhere is this kind of humanity more visible than in the film Paradise Now, written and directed by Hani Abu Asada. Two Palestinian friends get recruited to carry out a suicide bombing on Tel Aviv. At first they accept their mission solemnly, but they're intercepted at the Israeli border and separated from their handle. Then a young woman realizes their plan and forces them to question their actions. What did you do? Why did you do that? There is no other choice. We can't afford to die. If you have the ability to kill a person, why do you want to give up your life to save his life? How? The human rights organization? These are the only options. The families have not allowed the Israelis to kill us. You are so stubborn. You have no freedom. These three young Palestinians are different from each other. They're not just crazed terrorists. And they're not just freedom fighters. They're human beings with all the faults, successes, ideals, and pain of human beings. We are doing what we are supposed to do. We are trying our best, and we are crying for God. We are all fighting, think before you act. We are going to die, we are going to kill people with us. Nothing is going to change. I am not going to change. If you continue, you will change. I have no other choice but to continue. You have to change something. You have to change something. I'm an optimist and I believe in the future, particularly in young filmmakers. The stereotype will change. It will change because young men and women who are entering the profession will see that there has been a grave injustice committed. make attempts to correct it. It's only a matter of time as to when this will happen. But it will take place. Look, we've unlearned many of our prejudices against blacks, Native Americans, Jews, other groups. Why can't we unlearn our prejudices against Arabs and Muslims? What matters is not to remain silent. I think whenever we see anyone being vilified on a regular basis, we have to speak out, whether we're image makers or not. We have to take a stand and say this is morally and ethically wrong to demonize a people. Thank you. The transcript Emily Beynon

country. For 30 years, I've looked at how we, particularly when I say we, image makers, have projected Arabs on silver screens. In my latest book, Real Bad Arabs, How Hollywood Vilifies a People, I looked at more than 1,000 films. Films ranging from the earliest, most obscure days of Hollywood to today's biggest blockbuster. And what I tried to do is to make visible what too many of us seem not to see.

A dangerously consistent pattern of hateful Arab stereotypes. Stereotypes that rob an entire people of their humanity. All aspects of our culture project the Arab as villain. That is a given. There is no deviation.

We have taken a few structured images and repeated them over and over again. You are hostages of the Holy Freedom Party. Whether one lives in Paducah, Kentucky, or Wood River, Illinois, we know basically the same thing.

Listen to the sound of our talk. We know the mythology, namely Hollywood's images of Arabs. We inherited the Arab image primarily from Europeans.

In the early days, you know, maybe 150 years, 200 years ago, the British and the French who traveled to the Middle East and those who didn't travel to the Middle East. conjured up these images of the Arab as the Oriental other. The travel writers, the artists who fabricated these images and who were very successful as a matter of fact.

And these images were transmitted and inherited by us. We took them, we embellished them, and here they are. When you cross the mountains of the moon into our country, Mr. Tirole, you will be stepping back 2,000 years. We have this fictional setting called Arabland, a mythical theme park. And in Arabland, you know, you have the ominous music, you have the desert.

We start with the desert, always the desert as a threatening place. We add an oasis. palm trees a palace has a torture chamber in the basement the pasha sits there on his you know polished christian with harem maidens surrounding him is the man none of the harem maidens pleasing soon they have dr jack one heroine from the west who doesn't want want to be seen as the founding of the state of israel nineteen when you visit our support has never way must be aware of the internet and i'll be very quick and we have we have the property masters of hollywood planning women's belly dancing outfits they're giving the arab villains samitars It's long, long cemeteries. We see people riding around on magic carpets.

Turban charmers programming snakes in and out of baskets. Yesteryear's Arab land is today's Arab land. You.

are late. A thousand apologies, oh patient one. You have it then.

I had to slit a few throats, but I got it. Disney's Aladdin was seen by millions of children worldwide. It was hailed as one of Disney's finest accomplishments. But the film recycled every old degrading stereotype from Hollywood's silent black and white past.

Oh, I come from a land from a faraway place With a caravan camera Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face, it's barbaric, but hey, it's home. Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face, it's barbaric, but hey, it's home. Now, how could a producer with a modicum of intelligence, just a modicum of sensitivity, let a song such as that open the film? But this moves way beyond one song.

You must be hungry. Here you go. You'd better be able to pay for that.

Do you know what the penalty is for stealing? No! No, please! The Arab is one-dimensional caricature, cartoon cutouts used by filmmakers as stock villains and as comic relief.

And so over and over we see Arabs in movies portrayed as buffoons, their only purpose being to deliver cheap laughs. You see this in the Joey Heatherton film, The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington. Every night I was forced to perform unspeakable acts with circumcised dogs. Dogs are better than sheep.

They're cleaner, I know, I've tried that. And over and over again they're portrayed as inept. So, in a movie like True Lies, not only are the Arabs dangerous, they're also incompetent.

We are all prepared to die. One turn of that key, two million of your people will die instantly. What key?

That key! Who's taken the key? One actor who excels in his portrayal of Arabs as buffoons is Jamie Farr in Cannonball Run 2. I have a weakness for blondes and women without mustaches.

All the stereotypes are here. Too rich and stupid to know the value of money. Get me 12 sweets.

Better yet, the entire floor. And of course he's oversexed, lecherous, uncontrollably obsessed with the American woman. He Here, my desert blossom, give the change. Have you ever considered joining a harem? And so another pattern is the lecherous Arab.

In Jewel of the Nod, Sheikh Omar tricks Kathleen Turner. How? He convinces her to come with him to Arab land.

Then he imprisons her. You stay here and you write what I tell you to write. We see the same sort of ominous seduction and protocol. The entire plot revolves around an Arab Emir's infatuation with the blonde, blue-eyed, Goldie Hawn. In the Bond film Never Say Never Again, again.

Kim Basinger is abused by the most sleazy-looking Arabs imaginable. She's tied to a pole, stripped to her underwear, and auctioned off to primitive-looking Bedouins. And in Sahara, Brooke Shields is also kidnapped and presented to the lecherous Arab sheikh for his own perverted pleasure. Get away from me, you dirty bitch! More than 300 movies, nearly 25% of which were made in the United States.

of all Hollywood movies that in one way or another demean Arabs contain gratuitous slurs or they portray Arabs as being the butt of a cheap... We were going on a meccasy and the plane is full of Arabs with these animals. Goats, sheep, chickens.

I mean they don't go anywhere without their goddamn animals. We had to put plastic in the cabins. You know, they urinate, they defecate. You have films by Neil Simon like Chapter 2, the beginning of the film.

The protagonist arrives back from London and his brother says, How was London? And he says, Full of Arabs. How was London? Full of Arabs.

Arabs. Well, imagine if he had said, full of blacks, full of Jews, full of Hispanics. I mean, that's ridiculous.

Why do we do these things? We got a bite. One of the most offensive films with the gratuitous images, Father of the Bride 2. It features Steve Martin selling his house to a Mr. Habib. We like house very much. When you can move out.

Excuse me? The Habibs would like to buy the house, George. It's exactly what they've been looking for. It's when you can move.

We need how house a week from Wednesday and my wife wants flour dishes in kitchen. You sell, we pay top dollar. When Habib's submissive wife tries to speak, he shouts gibberish at her.

And then he offers Martin a $15,000 cash bonus to move out in 10 days. When Martin tells Mr. Habib that he doesn't want to sell the house after all, he finds Habib's wrecking crew there, ready to demolish it. his beautiful home.

And in a scene that calls to mind one of the most degrading stereotypes of the Jewish people, Mr. Habib demands an extra $100,000 to sell the house that he has owned for just a day back to Martin. Want me to take out a loan on something I own free and clear just 24 hours ago? Well, that is up to you, George.

Your path, your fence, your memories. Now, if you looked at the other Father of the Bride films, Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy, there were no Arabs or Arab Americans. So why does Disney inject these horrific, sort of offensive characters in Father of the Bride Part 2? It's the same reason that in Gladiator, the slave traders who kidnapped Russell Crowe and bring him back to Rome are Arabs. I mean, this is ridiculous.

I mean, why does Hollywood inject Arabs, scenes of Arabs, and or slurs demeaning Arabs in movies having nothing to do with the Middle East? So you're sitting like I am, for example, watching Back to the Future, about a mad scientist. And yet, early on in his life, in the film, we'd see these ugly, inept Libyans with machine guns in a parking lot trying to gun down the protagonist. I mean, why? This movie wasn't about the future.

It was the same old stereotyping from the past. And the same goes for Hollywood's view of Arab women. The Arab woman today is bright, intelligent.

She's someone who is exceeding in all professions. And yet this reality still is being... denied us on silver screens. The highly sexualized belly dancer has been with us from the beginning of Hollywood's history, inspired by early images of the Orient as the place of exoticism, intrigue, and passion.

But in recent years, this image has dramatically changed. The Arab woman is now projected as a bomber, a terrorist. Added to this image is what I call bundles in black. Veiled women in the background, in the shadows, submissive. It seems the more Arab women advance, the more Hollywood keeps them locked in the past.

Politics and Hollywood's images are linked. They reinforce one another. Policy enforces mythical images.

Mythical images help enforce policy. Jack Valente, president of the Motion Picture Association, of America has said, quote, Washington and Hollywood spring from the same DNA, end quote. The Arab image began to change immediately after World War II.

There were three things that impacted the change. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, in which the United States has unequivocally supported Israel. The Arab oil embargo in the 70s, which angered Americans when gas prices went through the ceiling. And the Iranian revolution, which increased Arab-American tensions when Iranian students took American diplomats hostage for more than a year. These three.

These three pivotal events brought the Middle East into the living rooms of Americans, and together helped shape the way movies stereotyped Arabs and the Arab world. One of the primary changes, the image of the Sheikh. In movies such as Roll Over, he's out to take over the world with his money, or he's up to no good trying to buy chunks of America.

Mrs. Winters, I think I should tell you there are those in the family in the family who do not think we should be making this offer at all. I assume if you could have found venture capital of this sort for a company like Winterchem in America, you would not be coming all the way to Arabia looking for it. You see the oily sheikh in Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

You see the money-grubbing sheikh who's out to commit all kinds of terrorism and launch a missile in earnest in the army. Gentlemen, behold my special club, the Pluton missile. With it, I will bring the infidels to their knees and be leader in the Arab world. One of the myths in the 70s was that the Arabs are coming over, buying up.

chunks of America. And of course, this was reflected in the cinema. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. One of my favorite movies of all time, racist though it may be, is Network, about commercial television. Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it.

How do you feel? Network features a TV anchor The rising of Superstar. Howe, he unleashes wild rants against the system on the air. But he directs the angriest of all his rants at Arabs, who he says are buying up America.

They're buying it for the Saudi Arabian Investment Corporation. They're buying it for the Arabs. The anchor, Howard Beale, calls on the American people to rise up and stop the Arab buyout of his TV network.

Listen to me, God damn it. The Arabs are simply buying us. There's only one thing that can stop them. You.

The rage of Americans in response became one of the most famous scenes in movie history. I want you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and write a telegram to President Ford saying I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore.

This kind of anger, the anger born of fear, all of it in response to a perceived conspiracy and threat by a specific group of people, well, we've seen and heard this before. If we look at the anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazis, at its core is an identical type of economic threat. This economic myth even made its way into children's books.

Sadly, the popular image of Jews and Nazi propaganda resembles the popular image of Arabs in some of our most beloved Hollywood movies. The only difference being that the Arab usually wears a robe and headdress. Another way we can look at the connection between politics and entertainment, Washington and Hollywood, is the manner in which historically cinema has projected the Palestinian people. Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, our support has never wavered. Every American administration has made it clear whose side we're on.

In contrast, Washington's policymakers have failed to support the millions of Palestinians who have been made refugees and who have lived lives of poverty and squalor as a result. While policies impact opinions, so equally unjust is how Hollywood has presented the conflict. Movies repeatedly depict Palestinians as terrorists. Making it seem that all Palestinians are evil. Made in America, Colonel.

Now that image has been perpetuated by Hollywood films, beginning with the film Exodus. It dealt with the very early conflict. Here, Palestinians are either invisible or they're linked with Nazis, perpetrators of horrific acts. The 1966 movie Cast a Giant's Shadow is another...

early film presenting Israelis as innocent victims of Palestinian violence. Kirk Douglas is an American military specialist and he goes to assist the Israelis. Some of the dialogue in this film reads like it came straight from the public relations department of the Israeli government.

Here's a country surrounded by five Arab nations ready to shove them into the Mediterranean. No guns, no tanks, no friends, nothing. People fighting with their bare hands for a little piece of desert.

The Palestinians in this movie are the lowest of the low. We see them solely as vicious gunmen, wide-eyed maniacs. They will kill anyone, anywhere, anytime, for any reason.

There's one brutal image in particular, of a burnt-out bus with a dead Jewish woman tied to its side, with the Star of David carved into her back. And when the Palestinians finally speak, they mock and psychologically terrorize another woman trapped in a bus. Well, if we jump forward a decade to the film Black Sunday, the Palestinian terrorist is now a woman.

Striking where it hurts them most. Where they feel most at home. She flies the Goodyear blimp into a Miami stadium and tries to wipe out 80,000 Americans at the Super Bowl.

She whole-bloodedly eliminates anyone in her path. The movies that we see basically follow Washington's policy. It's reflected in the cinema over and over again, particularly during the 1980s and the 90s, where you had perhaps 30 films which showed...

showed Palestinians as a people who were intent on injuring all Americans. How may we help you, Jack? One of the most despicable portrayals of Arabs and Palestinians occurs in the 1987 film Death Before Dishonor. First they murder a guard, and then slaughter an Israeli family.

They kidnap and torture an American Marine, and in cold blood, execute another. And they burn the American flag right in front of the American embassy and then dispatch a suicide bomber to blow it up. One reason we've not been allowed to empathize with any Palestinian on the silver screen is due to two Israeli producers, Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus.

These two filmmakers created an American... company called Canon and they released in a period of 20 years at least 30 films which vilify all things Arab, particularly Palestinians. They even came out with a film called Hell Squad showing Vegas show girls trouncing Arabs in the middle of the desert.

I think the most effective film they've ever done, one of the most popular and most racist, is the Delta Force. Here Palestinians hijack a plane and terrorize the passengers, especially the Jewish ones. out the passport with Jewish names. There is no form of communication more powerful than film in creating propaganda. And Golan and Globus took it to another level.

Certainly American producers play a role in vilifying Palestinians. I mean, perhaps the most anti-Palestinian film is Trulon. This apparently is the same group which just detonated a nuclear bomb in the Florida Keys. Crimson Jihad will rain fire on one major U.S. city each week until our demands are met.

This film is shown on television almost every week, over and over again. It is part of our visual heritage. Give me the key! Come on, child! You don't want to die, do you?

Give me the key! And you won't get hurt! I give you my word! No way, you wacko!

And we never see, never see, Palestinians who suffer under occupation, Palestinians in refugee camps, Palestinians who are victimized, who are killed, innocent Palestinians. images are denied us. Now why are they denied us?

Is there an unwritten code in Hollywood saying we cannot and will not humanize Palestinians? I mean why can't we humanize Palestinians in the same manner in which we humanize Israelis? Is not the life of a Palestinian child media-wise, Hollywood-wise, politically-wise, as important, as humane, as valuable as the life of a Palestinian as the life of an Israeli child?

And if the answer to that is yes, why can't we see that on silver screens? To solidify Washington's connection with Hollywood, simply look at the films produced in cooperation with the Department of Defense, showing our men and women in the armed forces killing Arabs at random. Like Iron Eagle, where a teenager goes over and bombs up an Arab country. You know, just learns how to fly a jet overnight. And then, of course, Navy SEALs with Charlie Sheen.

goes over to Lebanon and obliterates scores of Arabs. All right, Chief. Let's go tag him and bag him. Of all the Department of Defense films, the one that will stand the test of time as being the most racist is Rules of Engagement. Oh, man!

Oh, man! The film was written by former Secretary of the Navy, James Webb. The action takes place in Yemen, a real country in the Middle East. There are violent demonstrations at the American embassy, and the Marines, led by Samuel L. Jackson, they're called in to evacuate the American employees. And as they try to do so, the Marines open fire on the crowd and kill scores of Yemenis, including women and children.

And in the investigation follows Tommy Lee Jones, the lawyer who represented represents the Samuel Jackson character, goes to Yemen to investigate. The movie leads us to believe what seems obvious, that the Marines committed this atrocity. Armed American Marines, they were shooting at his people. They were just trying to defend themselves.

During his investigation, Jones' character sees a little girl with only one leg. He follows her, comes upon a hospital ward full of civilian victims. He finds an audio tape by the bed of one of the victims.

And when the tape gets translated in court, we immediately begin changing our minds about who is responsible for this massacre. to kill Americans and their allies both. civil and military is duty of every Muslim who is able.

We discovered that the Yemeni civilians aren't so innocent after all. It turns out they fired on the Marines first. And in a moment that will live in Hollywood infamy, we suddenly learned that the local girl was a woman.

and sympathize with. The very girl whose humanity and innocence may have broken down our stereotypes, well, she's no better than those other Yemeni terrorists. As a result, when Samuel L. Jackson and delivers the key line.

Waste of motherfuckers! We're now on his side. Why does this matter?

Because in the end, the massacre of even women and children has been justified and applauded. It's a slaughter, yes, but it's a righteous slaughter. Sergeant Mack. Sir? Contact all stations.

Mission complete. The humanity is not there. And if we cannot see the Arab humanity, what's left? If we feel nothing, if we feel that Arabs are not like us, or not like anyone else, then let's kill them all. Then they deserve to die, right?

What's the outcome? What do Arabs think of us that see these movies? Because these movies are... 25 cents American in Egypt.

Movies showing us killing them. What do they walk away with? Does this bring us closer together? Does this advance peace? Or does it separate us?

You're fired. Islamophobia now is a part of our psyche. Words such as Arab and Muslim are perceived as threatening words.

And if the words are threatening, what about the images that we see in the cinema and on our television screens? We are at war with Iraq. We went to war in March of 2003. But didn't our entrance to the war, wasn't that made a lot easier, primarily because for more than a century we had been vilifying all things Arab? And now, given what happened with 9-11, the tragic events that took place on that day, where 19 Arab Muslim terrorists were responsible for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. Now, instead of...

of saying that's the lunatic fringe we say no no no no the actions reflect the actions of 1.3 billion people now that's dangerous we don't say that the actions of ku klux klan members who are christian Christians represent Christianity, do we? Look at Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh, a good Irish Catholic boy.

Do we say all Irish Catholics are terrorists? No one knew McVeigh's religious beliefs, where he went to church, or his ethnic background. It was not part of the story.

Yet, of course, had that been an American with Arab roots or an American Muslim, it would have been a part of the story. Remember that when news of the bomb bombing broke, reporters and politicians, nearly everybody, rushed to judgment without any proof whatsoever. The U.S. government source told CBS News that it has Middle East terrorism written all over it. The attack in Oklahoma City appears to have a familiar mark. This was done with the attempt to inflict as many casualties as possible.

That is a Middle Eastern trait. The fact that it was such a powerful bomb in Oklahoma City immediately drew investigators to consider deadly parallels that all have roots in the Middle East. ABC News has learned that the FBI has asked the U.S. military to provide up to 10 Arabic speakers to help in the investigation. The stereotype has become so widespread. It's become invisible to people and the reason being is that we've all grown up with these images.

Just look at television. We now have TV shows telling us that in addition to the Arab terrorists over there. Where American Arabs over here are also terrorists.

Then there's Showtime's sleeper cell. Here a sinister network of Islamic groups operates on American street corners. Any homeless man could be part of this network.

Even Western-looking Arabs are part of this anti-American conspiracy. We're at war with America, period. And we're going to win that war. By convincing enough Americans through the spread of fear, insecurity and terror to change their ways.

And the best way to teach that lesson is by attacking them where they live, work and play. And this paranoia runs deep. Just take a moment and flip through some of our most popular religious channels. Islam, a religion of two billion members. that's growing by 50 million people annually.

Nearly every major terrorist network in the world is led by Islamic fundamentalists. Islam is, as we have seen, a religion that teaches the violent subjugation of all non-Muslims. It promises paradise to terrorists and makes the vilest deed a thing of beauty in the eyes of Allah. So, when innocent Arabs are killed, when they're bombed, maimed, wounded, when they're tortured in places like Abu Ghraib, is it really any surprise that we don't feel any compassion? Or worse, make light of it?

This is no different to what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it, and we're going to hamper our military effort. You ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of me to blow some steam off?

Well, yeah, sort of like hazing, a fraternity prank, sort of like that kind of fun. But the point is, everybody's been saying that this came from the top. We don't care about them.

We've been preconditioned to think that those innocent civilians, clones of Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, are one and the same and do not merit our sympathy, our understanding. And that's very dangerous. According to the FBI, hate crimes in America targeting Muslims or people who just appear to be Middle Eastern surged in the aftermath of 9-11.

Since 9-11, if you are an Arab American or a Muslim American and you go to an airport... you're automatically profiled. Numerous thousands of Muslim Americans were rounded up and detained without due process. Many people, particularly immigrants, lost their jobs.

This college student who asked not to be identified says a recent meeting with police left him feeling like a criminal. I was just very scared, anxious, nervous. And I just wanted to get it over with. He was one of several thousand men of mostly Arab descent who were interviewed. So there is this cloud, you know, with the hate crimes, with the profiling, with being rounded up.

Again, I think this illustrates the power of film. That in spite of the reality, in spite of the material that we know to be true, we still embrace the mythology. The mythology is still a part of our psyches.

Stereotypes take a long time to wither away. And for many of us, we're comfortable with our prejudices. We don't want to change. We've grown accustomed to this face.

When we think of Arabs, what do we see? What images come to mind? Do we see actual people? People who, despite real cultural or geographical differences, do pretty much the same things that we do? When we think of Arab women, what images come to mind?

Do we see women who laugh and play and who adore their children? Women who work in the home as well as outside? Would it come as a surprise to know that in many Arab countries, a majority of college students are actually women? What's our immediate image of Arab men?

Do we see loving fathers? Men who want to provide? provide for their families? What about Arab teenagers?

Do we see them the way you would think about teenagers in other parts of the world? Then there's religion in the Arab world. Do we see it as all-encompassing, dominating everything else? Do we know that even though faith plays a huge role in the Arab world, just as it does here in the United States? that it's also true that much of the Arab world is quite secular?

When we think of Arabs and religion, does Christianity come to mind? Do we remember that there are over 20 million Christians in the region? who have lived side by side in harmony with Muslims for centuries?

To their credit, some filmmakers have shown Arabs and American Arabs in all their complexities an excellent way to shatter a stereotype. is through laughter, through comedy. So we have comedians.

Comedians have done this historically, black comedians, Jewish comedians. So we see Arab comedians doing this, and this is one way to release the tension. I'm paying for a credit card, true story.

Guy Van the Count picked up my credit card, sees the aisle apart, looks at me all weird. He's like, hey, buddy, what kind of name is that? I'm like, well, sir, it's an Arabic name.

He goes, what does this mean? So I'm like, well, translate it to English. It means peaceful, friendly Arab.

But he's not happy because, you know, what Arab country is your family from? He's trying to find the most peaceful, proper one that he would like. So I'm like, we're from the same Arab country that Aladdin is from.

To his credit, Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9-11 in the DVD includes a scene with this comedy coming out. My name really is Ahmed Ahmed, and I can't fly anywhere. all you white people have it easy you guys get to the airport like an hour two hours before your flight takes me a month and a half security's gotten so bad now i just drove to the airport in a g-string i'm like hey The character I read for was terrorist number four, not number one, not number two, number four. And I was already well into my comedy career at this point, so I didn't take it that serious. And I read my lines way over the top, and, you know, it was like, Satan, you will obey, or I'll kill you in the name of Allah, you know, stuff like that.

And the director went nuts and he was like, that was brilliant Ahmad. Let me see you do it again, but this time with more, you know, Arab, you know how your people are very, you know, he's trying to say that we're angry. like okay angry is that what you want yes yes so i did it one more time and i got a call the next morning that they want to use me in this movie and i started laughing on the phone because i wasn't even like i was making fun of the part of the role i wasn't trying to be like that and they and that's what they want though and once we begin to humanize arabs and muslims to project them as we project other people, no better, no worse, than the stereotype gradually gradually diminishes. In movies such as A Perfect Murder, we see an Arab-American detective, the friend, the heroine. Then there's Three Kings, a movie I served as a consultant on.

The action occurs during the first Gulf War in 1991. The film is notable for revealing the complexities of the Iraqi people, focusing on these Iraqis that Saddam Hussein wants to kill. How's your little girl? She's safe from now. Outstanding, excellent.

How can we help you? There's mutual respect in this film and there's also Iraqis who are loyal to Saddam Hussein. It's not a sugar-coated film.

It's a very realistic film. It's an outstanding film in my opinion. Kingdom of Heaven, which focuses on the Crusades, was a tremendous hit overseas not here in the United States United States.

And when the film was shown in Beirut, particularly at the end, when Salah Hadeen takes over Jerusalem, there's peace between Muslim and Christian, he enters a church and there is an icon on the floor. Salah Hadeen sees the icon, respectfully picks it up and places it back on the altar. When audiences in Beirut saw that, they rose to their feet and applauded. We're talking about Muslims as well as Christians applauding the act of a Muslim who embraces religious tolerance.

There is this need of Arab audiences to embrace American films that show them in a respectful honest fair manner and with the release of George Clooney's Syriana I hope I hope that Hollywood is listening. The film has some unflattering yet honest depictions of Arabs, but it also presents an Arab prince as one of the film's few decent human beings. The British educated prince wants to bring democracy to his country, and his ideals get him and his family murdered.

I want to create a parliament. I want to give women the right to vote. I want an independent judiciary.

I want to start a petroleum exchange in the Middle East. I'll put all of our energy up for competitive bidding. I'll run pipe through Iran to Europe, like you proposed.

I'll ship to China. Anything that achieves efficiency and maximizes profit. Profit which... which I will then use to rebuild my country.

Great. That's exactly what you should do. Exactly.

Except, your president rings my father and says I've got unemployment in Texas, Kansas, Washington State. One phone call later, we're stealing out of our social programs in order to buy overpriced airplanes. Another example of this kind of humanity and respect is found in Hideous Kinky, a film about an English woman, played by Kate Winslet and her two daughters in Morocco. Winslet's relationship with her Moroccan lover... is beautifully and lovingly displayed.

And when she doesn't have the money to return home to England with her daughters, he makes hard sacrifices to make it happen. There's a tender and moving scene at the end. The Moroccan catches up with the train they're on to say goodbye, to wish them well. We see the warmth and love that exists between them.

And nowhere is this kind of humanity more visible than in the film Paradise Now, written and directed by Hani Abu Asada. Two Palestinian friends get recruited to carry out a suicide bombing on Tel Aviv. At first they accept their mission solemnly, but they're intercepted at the Israeli border and separated from their handle.

Then a young woman realizes their plan and forces them to question their actions. What did you do? Why did you do that?

There is no other choice. We can't afford to die. If you have the ability to kill a person, why do you want to give up your life to save his life?

How? The human rights organization? These are the only options.

The families have not allowed the Israelis to kill us. You are so stubborn. You have no freedom. These three young Palestinians are different from each other. They're not just crazed terrorists.

And they're not just freedom fighters. They're human beings with all the faults, successes, ideals, and pain of human beings. We are doing what we are supposed to do. We are trying our best, and we are crying for God.

We are all fighting, think before you act. We are going to die, we are going to kill people with us. Nothing is going to change.

I am not going to change. If you continue, you will change. I have no other choice but to continue.

You have to change something. You have to change something. I'm an optimist and I believe in the future, particularly in young filmmakers.

The stereotype will change. It will change because young men and women who are entering the profession will see that there has been a grave injustice committed. make attempts to correct it. It's only a matter of time as to when this will happen.

But it will take place. Look, we've unlearned many of our prejudices against blacks, Native Americans, Jews, other groups. Why can't we unlearn our prejudices against Arabs and Muslims? What matters is not to remain silent.

I think whenever we see anyone being vilified on a regular basis, we have to speak out, whether we're image makers or not. We have to take a stand and say this is morally and ethically wrong to demonize a people. Thank you.

The transcript Emily Beynon

Transcript for:Hollywood's Arab Stereotypes and Representation

Transcript for:
Hollywood's Arab Stereotypes and Representation