One of the bitter truths of the Hollywood world is that despite all its claims of enlightenment, it relies on race and nationalistic characters and this aspect furthers the cynicism within the viewers.
This becomes more evident when choosing a ‘villain’ for a Hollywood film.
Although the Cold War ended many decades ago, according to what is shown on the screen today, Russia is still the home of the bad guys and the Germans are as badass as they come.
One of the reasons for this is the large number of evil German Nazis participating in TV programs since World War II.
Since the beginning of the new century, Arab Muslims have been the biggest victims of ‘character assassination’ on screen.
Even before 9/11 in America, Arab Muslims were portrayed as oppressors, oppressors of women, sexists, and terrorists because of their oil resources.
The only difference is that such anti-Muslim propaganda has been reinforced by 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror.
Although a large number of ordinary people have been killed by extremists associated with right-wing and white supremacist movements in the last 15 years, according to Hollywood, ordinary people fear Muslims the most.
This is largely due to the sensational TV series 24 and ‘Sleeper Cell’ after 9/11, which seem to show that American TV has made Islam and its followers its worst enemy.
The biggest Islamophobia show on TV?
The Homeland series reflected former US President George W. Bush’s words ‘you’re either with us or with the terrorists’ in the true sense of the word, in which Muslim characters were shown to be either accomplices of terrorists or of the US government. Agreed to be instrumental.
The series is now set to return with its eighth and final season and much of the Muslim community is eagerly awaiting its conclusion.
The series premiered in 2011 and proved to be the most biased drama on screen. Apart from how every evil has been associated with Muslims, the series has even portrayed Muslims as a hidden threat to American citizens.
Former US President Barack Obama was also a big fan of the well-received and culturally iconic show. It’s sad that the show’s showrunners paid so little attention to getting basic details about the Islamic world for so many years.
The first series had many controversial scenes, Arab characters were given Persian names and the iconic and beautiful city of Islamabad was portrayed as a terrifying hell and battlefield. The series has a long list of such flaws.
Sue Abedi, director of the Hollywood Bureau of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, an American organization, says that such ridicule and negative beliefs and attitudes are having a negative impact on Western society because such baseless information about the Muslim community. One can form certain opinions which can have dire consequences.
The research report shows that such negative portrayals of Muslims have a direct impact on public opinion and support policies that are dangerous to Muslims and infringe on their rights. or justify the use of heavy military force against them.
On the other hand, positive reflection of Muslims and direct relationship with them has positive effects.
The Hollywood star’s reaction
Abedi says that accurate representation is important not only because of how others see Muslims, but also because of how Muslims themselves see themselves.
This issue was brought forward in 2017 by the famous Hollywood Muslim actor Riz Ahmed, who is also the star of the famous films Rogue One and Venom.