Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October/November 1997, Page 92

Saudi Straight Talk

Distortion and Lethargy

By Dr. Abdel Qader Tash

The distortion of the image of Islam and Arabs by American media has a history of over 100 years. According to Professor Jack Shaheen of the University of Southern Illinois, author of The TV Arab and an internationally recognized authority on the subject of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic stereotypes in the U.S. media, Hollywood has produced in the last hundred years more than 700 films with contents vilifying Islam and Arabs.

Extending his field of media study beyond Hollywood films, Shaheen also examined more than 250 comic books published during the past 50 years, from Donald Duck to Superman. He also analyzed hundreds of children's programs, such as "Popeye" and "Major Dad," and more than 450 films—from the "Dance of Fatima," produced in 1893, to "Aladdin," produced by Walt Disney in 1993.

After reviewing these films and cartoons, Shaheen concludes: "My research has indicated that the very terms Arab and Muslim draw hostile reaction from the public as they find it difficult to differentiate between reality and imagination."

He adds: "Perhaps, no people anywhere in the world, other than the 270 million Arabs, have been so grossly misunderstood. Similarly, Islam, the faith of over a billion Muslims including six to eight million in the United States, is the religion that has suffered more than any other because of the general ignorance about it."

America's long history of distortion has made a great number of Muslims and Arabs, intellectuals as well as ordinary people, feel that it is impossible now to change the image.

Dr. Hisham Sharabi, an Arab researcher in the U.S., was expressing this concern when he said: "Ignorance alone is not the reason for the distortion of Arab image in the West. In fact, it reflects a specific pattern of understanding shaped by religious and ethnic animosity against Arabs and Islam. It is this pattern that defines the image in the public mind."

Sharabi is of the opinion that giving more and more correct information about Arabs and Islam will not solve the problem. No matter how many more facts are given, he maintains, they will be negated by that pattern of thinking. And it is this pattern that is difficult to change.

He is right. But that is no reason why we should not try to project our true image.

But how much real effort are we willing to put in? While we are extremely good at complaining about the West's injustice and campaigns, rarely do we care to translate these protests into action.

One single incident will illustrate our monumental lethargy. The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) had telecast a program titled "Jihad in America" attacking Islam and Muslims, produced by Steven Emerson, a Jew. The theme was the possible scenarios of Middle Eastern groups carrying out terrorist acts in the United States.

"Ignorance alone is not the reason for the distortion of the Arab image in the West."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) effectively protested, and the TV station agreed to show a one-hour program on Islam. Its production would cost $500,000, and PBS agreed to pay half the amount and the council was to arrange the remaining $250,000. Until today, two years after the airing of that anti-Muslim program, Muslims have collected only $25,000.

If we cannot collect even so paltry an amount as $250,000 to produce a program on Islam, how can we change our distort-ed image?