Shaheen points out that much has happened in the last century-women\'s suffrage...

Shaheen points out that much has happened in the last century-women\'s suffrage, the civil rights\' movement, the collapse of the U.S.S.R, numerous wars-to change how minorities are represented, Arabs are still portrayed in much the same stereotypical way that they have been in the past. While the stereotypes against other groups are today widely rejected in the media, Arabs are still fair game. Shaheen notes: Pause and visualize the reel Arab. What do you see?

Black beard, head dress, dark sunglasses. In the background-a limousine, harem maidens, oil wells, camels. Or perhaps he is brandishing an automatic weapon, crazy hate in his eyes and Allah on his lips. Can you see him? As was the case with other ethnic groups in the past, Arabs are often depicted as oversexed and desiring pure, beautiful, white women. If Arab or Muslim women are portrayed, they are almost always either sexually inviting or faceless.

In the case that they are sexually inviting, their seduction is almost always rejected by the "pure" white men as being below their dignity. Arabs are also depicted as being hook-nosed and devious. In many ways these caricatures mirror past western stereotyping of the Jews: thick lips, crooked nose, scruffy beard, angry faces, different dress. The Arab is made to look ugly and thus evil. Even Arabs who may seem peaceful on the surface should be suspected of being violent.

Shaheen notes that the same imagery which was used by Nazi propagandists to dehumanize the Jews is used today by Hollywood to dehumanize Arabs. Shaheen notes that Islam is also an unfair target for Hollywood. Although most Arabs are Muslims, most Muslims are not Arabs, a fact that Hollywood seems to ignore. Throughout Reel Bad Arabs, "Arab" and "Muslim" are shown as being interchangeable.

Because mentioning every single review is not possible for this short paper, this reviewer is looking at examples of four different Arab/Muslim archetypes: villains, sheikhs, maidens, and Palestinians. All the examples mentioned below are taken from the "worst" film list-it\'s striking that many of the films to be mentioned in this paper were shot in Israel and even use Israeli actors to portray Arabs and Muslims.

This is surely no accident; such a portrayal is a part of winning hearts and minds to support the Israeli cause. Pro-Israelis achieve a number of objectives through negative portrayals of Arabs.