Without using Google, can you think of the name of a single Muslim character from a movie you’ve seen? Could be any character from any movie that came out at any point, as long as you can remember their name. If you can’t, that’s perfectly understandable, and if you can, well, you’re probably thinking of either Aladdin, or a terrorist. Sadly, there’s plenty of movies, TV shows and videogames where Muslims are depicted as the enemy, to be heroically shot down by the white American protagonist. “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare”, “Iron Man”, “American Sniper”, “24” and even “Back to the Future” – a family-friendly film all about a boy time-travelling and having to deal with his mom falling in love with him – all feature Middle-Eastern terrorists coming about and making life miserable for the white protagonists. It’s, admittedly, a rather depressing state of affairs, one that has been talked to death and that no one seems to really support, and yet one that doesn’t really seem to change. How come?

Well, the thing is that – unlike what some may believe – there isn’t some kind of massive government or media conspiracy to make Muslims a target, even if a certain President would really like to make that happen. Our media is merely a reflection of the times in which we live – a mirror of our culture, and the world in which it was created. Around WWII, American media ostracized Japanese people, and during the Cold War it was the Russians who were the bad guys of every movie. If tomorrow the US and North Korea start a war with the US, God forbid, I can assure you you’ll start seeing a whole lot of Asians pop up as targets in the next “Call of Duty”. But in a post-9/11 world, the acceptable targets have been the Arabs. What I’m trying to say here is that there isn’t some kind of higher authority we can shake up and say “Hey, cut it out with the stereotypes!” It’s an issue that’s a tad more fundamental in nature, and as such it’ll take a lot more work to be fixed.

“But why”, you might be asking. “Why should we fix it? Like you said, the Japanese and Russians went through the same thing, and they’re fine now!” Yeah, but the thing is, they’re fine now, decades after the smear campaign against their races, and during those decades we’ve had numerous positive depictions to outset the damage. In how many movies have you seen a samurai, or a Japanese martial arts expert? Sure, those depictions are also stereotypes, but they’re positive ones and have helped the Western public consciousness become more accepting of people belonging to the Japanese race. In order for Arabs and Arab-Americans to be accepted into Western society, we need something similar – we need to outset the negative media stereotypes with positive ones.

Believe it or not, the media can actually affect people’s perception of others a great deal – many papers have been written on the subject, and most experts on psychology agree that you can use the media to subtly influence the viewer’s perception. After all, that’s exactly how advertisement works! Have you ever seen something on TV (maybe a phone that one of the characters is using, or a car, or perhaps just a cool-looking prop) and said to yourself “Oh, man, I GOTTA have that”? That’s an example of positive reinforcement. The opposite effect can be had with negative reinforcement. Just like how a movie can make an object look really friggin’ cool, that same movie can make an object look really bad… Or a person. It’s very important to note that no, of course TV isn’t going to turn you into a raging racist if you weren’t one already (or at the least had the capacity to become one), nor are you fully helpless against the tricks that advertisers and directors use to manipulate you. You can be absolutely above those things – if you’ve ever watched an infomercial and thought to yourself “Nobody’s stupid enough to buy this”, then that means the tricks failed to work on you… But at the exact same moment, dozens of people are phoning in to purchase that exact same item you thought was ridiculously bad. We’re all differently susceptible to our media, and as such it’s the responsibility of creators to not single out a group of people as their “go-to” bad guys, even if that solution is incredibly easy and convenient in terms of visual shorthand.

There’s so many stories that you can tell featuring a Muslim protagonist – to be perfectly fair, you can tell practically ANY story with a Muslim protagonist, but even when we limit the pool to stories where the character’s faith or ethnicity is a major focal point, there’s still a lot of things you can do that don’t just ultimately boil down to “lol terrorism”. I’ve already spoken about Ms. Marvel, whose undying optimism in a world that despises people like her has been a beacon of hope for American Muslims. We don’t really need another videogame in which the brave, white, American soldier shoots at the evil, brown, brainwashed baddies who want to blow up the world from their desert cave, but we’re in dire deficit of games that feature a Muslim protagonist, or have a Muslim character among their main cast. The first and possibly most important step towards moving away from the negative stereotypes is to build positive ones, and to double down on positive reinforcement. Because while it’s true that there are many Muslims who do terrible things out there in the world, it’s also true that most of them don’t – and showcasing that is important.

Pop quiz! Tell me the first Muslim hero from a movie, game, comic or TV series that pops into your head! When I say “hero”, I basically mean “not a terrorist”. Go! … What, do you need a little bit more time? It’s fine, I’ll wait for a while. Still drawing a blank, huh? Yeah, sadly, those who believe in the Islamic faith are rarely depicted as anything more than fanatics who want to blow stuff up… Which, honestly, isn’t that surprising considering the fact that this is generally how the West perceives Muslims. Can you blame them, though? Even though the overwhelming majority of Muslims – especially those living in America – just want to live normal, peaceful lives, that’s not the people the news report about. “Man opens fire in a gay nightclub while screaming Allahu Akbar”, “Refugees rape dozens of women in a single night”, “Bomb threat by Arab man prevented”…

I don’t blame the media for reporting on these events, because they are most certainly worth reporting, but they paint a very wrong picture of an entire culture. Nobody bats an eye when a white person shoots numerous children in an elementary school – or at the very least, nobody says “Man, these white people are all savages!” But when someone of the Muslim faith does something wrong, people immediately go “Ah, see, I told you these Muslims” were a threat, even though most Muslims actively want nothing to do with religious fanaticism of any sort. It actually reached the point where, when an FBI informant infiltrated a mosque and attempted to stir up the fanatics in order to uncover potential terrorist activity, the people there actually went ahead and reported the informant to the FBI as a potential threat. Still, these stories generally go under the radar in favor of the more traditional fear mongering which feeds to the popular illusion that every single Muslim – man, woman and child – is a mass murderer waiting to happen.

So when Marvel announced that they would be introducing their very first Muslim superhero, and she would be the one to bear the company name, well… Let’s just say the reaction was mixed.

Ms. Marvel’s introduction to the Marvel lore is part of an ongoing effort to diversify the company’s most popular heroes (most of which have been white males for over fifty years). Tony Stark was replaced by a black teenage girl, Hulk was replaced by an Asian teenage boy, Spider-Man gained a female counterpart in the form of the Asian Silk, Thor became unworthy of his hammer and was replaced by a woman, Captain America was replaced by the Falcon (a black man), and hell, even Star-Lord himself was a woman for a bit! The former Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers (who will be making her cinematic debut in 2018), left that name a couple of years ago in order to take up the more dignified mantle of Captain Marvel, leaving it open. So when a teenage girl from New Jersey happened to obtain superpowers, it was only fitting that she would take up the name of her idol. And while initial reactions to the reveal were mixed (as they often are when a long-standing character is being replaced by a younger, ethnic alternative), it only took the first issue for people to warm up to the new Ms. Marvel and accept her as an essential part of the Marvel universe. Today, Ms. marvel is at the forefront of the Marvel universe – she was an Avenger, is currently leading her own team (the Champions) and has appeared in numerous Marvel videogames, all despite the fact that media has branded her a terrorist for her religion.

Why is that? Why all the support? Is it just Marvel pushing their ethnic characters to the forefront, opinions be damned? Well, not entirely. It’s because Ms. Marvel is fun. Kamala Khan, as she’s known to her parents and friends, is not defined by her faith, even if it’s a part of her that she respects (her very first appearance in her book shows her sniffing bacon because apparently there’s no rules in the Quran against smelling it). After all, she was born in the US, and despite her religion is an American girl through and through. But she’s not just a regular girl – she’s a fangirl. She spends her time writing fanfiction about her favorite heroes, she freaks out when she has a team-up with someone she’s idolized, and naturally she jumped at the opportunity to join the Avengers. She’s fun, she’s goofy, she has a sense of humor, she’s adorable, she’s someone that you would genuinely want to hang out with. But most importantly – all of her fangirlish qualities allow the reader to see themselves as her. As a matter of fact, back when issue 1 was released (which had a cover that only revealed half of Kamala’s face), there was a meme circulating around comic book circles in which people – regardless of their race or religion – held up the cover to their face and “completed” it, with their own eyes showing up where Kamala’s should be. The message was clear – we are Ms. Marvel. Things like where we’re from or what we believe in are important, but there are far more important qualities that define us as people. And, just like teenagers 50 years ago could identify with Spider-Man, teenagers today can identify with Ms. Marvel even though, in many ways, she is very different from them.

When she was introduced into the Marvel canon, Kamala had two very important jobs ahead of her – she had to properly represent both the Muslim community and the fanboys. And honestly, I’d say that she fulfilled both of them perfectly. In no small part thanks to her, people who used to scoff at the idea are now perfectly open to having Muslim characters lead the media they like. Every day, more and more people pick up a comic book, or discover her in a game, or just see a funny picture with her online, and realize that Muslims aren’t terrorists – they’re just people, like everyone else. And, as an added bonus, readers of the Islamic faith finally have a character they can look up to who also looks like them. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what representation is all about?

More Commonly Asked Questions About Arab Culture

Hello once again! I’m happy to see that you’ve stuck around for so long – that means I’m able to keep your interest, which isn’t something I was confident I would be able to do when I started this blog! Unless this is the first article you read here, in which case… Welcome to the blog! I recently wrote an article where I cleared up some of the more common misconceptions regarding Arab culture, such as whether every Arab is a Muslim and whether all women had to be veiled. I’m incredibly proud of that article, and I highly recommend that you go and check it out first before continuing with this one! In any case, are you ready to continue clearing up the misconceptions, dear reader? Let’s get started!

So, how are the Arab world countries governed, exactly? Are they caliphates?

Actually, as far as I know, the only state out there currently calling itself a caliphate is ISIS, so… No, not really, and thank God for that – caliphates were never exactly the most effective forms of rule. I might write a separate article about them sometime in the future because the topic really is fascinating, but suffice to say, there was no such thing as a separation of faith and state there. Today, most Arab world countries are parliamentary republics (Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen), traditional monarchies (Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia) or constitutional monarchies (Jordan and Morocco). The last big caliphates ended almost a century ago, so don’t worry – the Arab world is well on its way to a democracy… At least on paper.

You mentioned before that not all women had to wear a burqa, but what options do they have?

Well, that depends mostly on where they live. Some countries, such as Egypt, are very liberal when it comes to what people can wear, while in others women’s options are a bit more limited. Worst case scenarios, both women AND men need to dress traditionally, or risk being attacked by radicals. Still, in the more liberal countries, even in some of those that require women to wear traditional clothing, they’re still given a choice on what they want to wear based on their own personal beliefs. Some could go with a more revealing hijab or shayla, while the more conservative ladies (or those unfortunate enough to be born in conservative families) could wear niqabs or burkas. Feel free to check out this link for an excellent visual representation of the various traditional garbs of Arab women.

Speaking of women, is it true that they’re treated differently even in more liberal countries?

I haven’t lived in every country in the Arab world, so I can’t say for sure, but from what I’ve seen… Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of differences when it comes to how women are treated in many places, and it’s highly noticeable. It’s almost like women are an entirely different species – they feed and socialize in different rooms from men, they almost never talk to men outside of their family unless it’s strictly business, a man can’t approach a woman unless he has been formally introduced to her, eye contact is highly discouraged… In addition, male children are highly preferred within a family, with the belief that a son can bring honor to his family while a daughter can only bring shame. From a Western point of view it seems crazy, but that’s the way it is. Personally, I don’t believe that this kind of segregation and treatment is helping anyone, but I also believe in tradition and personal choice.

Wow, two articles already and I haven’t even scratched the surface! I think there’s material here for at least 5-6 more lists of this sort, but for the sake of variety I’ll try to write something else next time. What would you like to see? Let me know by clicking that Contact button at the top!

The Post-9/11 world is not an easy place for people of Arab descent. The 2001 attacks proved to the world that horrible, cruel acts of terrorism could have a profound impact upon a culture, and as such inspired a whole new generation of radicals which continues to threaten both the East and the West to this very day. In addition, fear has begun spreading through Europe and America, and as “Star Wars” taught us, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering – something that people of Arab descent living in the West know all too well. Just as much as Westerners are afraid of terrorist attacks, people of Arab descent face the much more immediate danger of being beaten, insulted, discriminated against and even killed solely because they were born with the “wrong” skin color and faith. And now, with one of the leading presidential candidates in America promising to deport everyone exercising the Muslim faith, it seems like the hatred against people of Arab descent has reached a climax.

Seeing all of this unfold was the reason why I made this website. People fear the those who are different to them – it’s a remnant of evolution, from way back when tribes of different human species stole our food and women hundreds of thousands of years ago. We fear what we don’t understand, we are afraid of those alien to us. So, if in any small way I can somehow bridge the gap and help Westerners see people of Arab descent in a different light by learning more about their culture, religion, customs, holidays and homeland, then I believe that this is something that I must absolutely do. Thank you for reading, and regardless of whether you’re living in the Arab world, are of Arab descent or are of Western descent and are curious, I hope you find something here that will be interesting to you!