Why Are Muslims Always 'Bad' in Hollywood Movies?
Muslim characters are either negative or non-existent in the US film industry, Riz Ahmad says. British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmad and a group of activists have launched a campaign to combat toxic portrayals of Muslims in the popular film industry dominated by Hollywood. The problem with Muslim misrepresentation is one that cant be ignored anymore and its one that I cannot fix alone, Ahmad, an Oscar nominator actor, who represents a minuscule number of Muslims in Hollywood, said in a video he posted on Twitter. I'm fed up of seeing Muslim characters on screen either negative or non existent. The industry must change. Our new study proves what many of us always felt about #MuslimsInFilm. The cost is measured in hate & lost lives. Full speech here: https://t.co/bsfpQw4Wfe pic.twitter.com/2itt6IaESB  Riz Ahmed (@rizwanahmed) June 10, 2021  Ahmad made history after becoming the first Muslim actor to be nominated for the best actor category at the Oscars for his role in The Sound of Metal this year. I ask myself, if I'm an exception to the rule, what must the rule be about people like me? Ahmad said, adding that exceptions dont change the rules, but rather highlight them. The progress thats been made by a few of us doesnt paint an overall picture of the progress of most of the portrayals of Muslims on screen that are still either non-existent or entrenched in those stereotypical, toxic two-dimensional portrayals, he said. Less than 2 percent representation  Muslims make up around 24 per cent of the global population yet their representation in popular movies from the US remained at 1.6 percent, according to a USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study that examined 200 movies. Ahmad has been speaking about the Muslim representation problem in media for several years, but the study Missing & Maligned: The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movies, is acting as his campaigns backbone. Among the top 200 movies from the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, 181 of them had no Muslim characters. This meant, 90.5 percent of the examined movies lacked any Muslim representation. Among the countries that were examined, the USs film industry had the worst representation rates alongside the UK at 1.1 percent for each country while New Zealand had no Muslim representation in speaking roles at all. Robin Hood Prince of Thieves is a fun romp of a movie that not only shows a Muslim character in positive light, it also has possibly one of the best villains onscreen played by Alan Rickman. To call it joyless only shows you never watched it. pic.twitter.com/9JlFY841yg   Ro  (@jro616) June 14, 2021  There were no Muslim characters in the 23 animated movies taken as the full sample. Playing into toxic stereotypes about Muslims  Muslim representation is rare, and when it exists, it is highly problematic. On occasional social media flare ups, Muslims use satire to express their disapproval to movies and shows that have stereotypical Muslim characters. For many Muslims, it's better to have no representation than to be shown in a rigid, oversimplified image. No more representation, please," one Twitter user recently said as he joked about the perpetual misrepresentation of Muslims in the Western film industry. Muslim women characters who wear hijabs are often shown in conflict with their appearance. The act of taking off the hijab is portrayed as a sign of freedom. The study points out how Muslim women are stereotyped and portrayed as submissive by the film industry. For instance, famous American medical drama Greys Anatomy shows in an episode that a Muslim doctor rips her hijab off and applied it on a patient as a bandage, even though shes in a hospital and surrounded by an abundant supply of medical bandages. Women characters made up only 23.6 percent of Muslim characters in 200 films that were examined in the study. More than 50 per cent of Muslims on screen were linked to violence and rendered as foreigners'' who are refugees or migrants, while the majority of them spoke with an accent and wore different clothes. Despite Muslims are one of the most racially and ethnically diverse religious groups in the world, the characters are mainly stereotyped as Middle Eastern/North African. Theyre also illustrated as threatening, and as subservient, particularly to white characters, according to Pillars Fund, the organisation that joined forces with Ahmad. As anti-Muslim violence has spread across the world, the campaign says dangerous biases against Muslims on a global scale powered by Muslims misrepresentation in films and other TV formats, which has fuelled the hatred and violence against Muslims. "; "send them back". This article has been adapted from its original source.