Muslims, Islam under attack in terrorist movie ‘The Siege’

Wednesday, November 11, 1998

Muslims, Islam under attack in terrorist movie ‘The Siege’

MOVIE: Hollywood inflicts pejorative view of group on
susceptible audiences

By Salar Rizvi

The headlines read "Crafting a ‘Siege’ Mentality" as the faces
of Denzel Washington, Annette Bening and Tony Shahloub stare aghast
at the machinations of some would-be terrorist. The new movie "The
Siege," by Edward Zwick, is doing just that: pushing a mentality.
This is far from a movie review, but rather a review of the
consequences of such a film.

No punches are pulled as the movie spends most all of its time
attaching the terrorist label to the Muslim identity. In fact, this
movie does not just identify Islam with terrorism; it identifies
Islam as a cause for terrorism.

Many people believe that this is just another political-action
thriller, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that not many
people know enough about Islam and Muslims to differentiate between
what’s real and what’s not.

This movie follows a long line of films that have shaped our
mentalities against a race or people.

Think back to the Cold War and all the movies you saw portraying
Russians as the cold, heartless enemy of democracy. Sometimes these
images are subtle, and sometimes they are blatant, but either way
we internalize and use them to shape our particular perspective. I
grew up disliking the Russians and their culture of "war" simply
based on the movies I watched and that they were always in the
news. It took some actual effort to break through all the
generalizations I had built up through the years.

One unfortunate aspect about the movie is that it takes place in
the present. The time reference is established by clips of
President Clinton defending the bombings of civilians in Sudan and
Afghanistan. This establishes that whatever is to follow can happen
right here, right now.

Roger Ebert, in his review of this movie, asked if this film was
really necessary; I ask the same question. In a time when relations
overseas are tense and the Muslim image has been maligned, we are
presented with a movie that blatantly connects Muslims with
terrorism.

Personally, I found many images in the movie very disturbing.
One such image was the misrepresentation of the Muslim’s wudu
(Arabic for purification or cleansing). This is something Muslims
do before prayer in order to make sure that they are clean during
prayer. In the movie such action was linked to a "pre-bombing"
ritual and was cast in a frightening light. Now, any time someone
sees a Muslim making wudu, a thought of bombing and terrorism might
be triggered in his mind.

I’ve heard some people say that the end of the movie gives an OK
finish to a two-hour stereotype-fest of Muslims and Arabs. My
answer to that is that the ending does not erase all the
connections and links made during the movie between Islam and
terrorism. It seems the film makes terrorism part of the Muslim
culture. You eat, you go to work, you sleep, you commit senseless
acts of violence … you know: the normal day.

Islam is much against the random acts of violence that were
depicted in "The Siege."

One incident involving the movie theater audience really struck
me.

A scene in the movie had authorities interrogating a youth about
where he had gotten his money. You could see that the youth had
already been tortured by having cigarettes put out on his neck.

The interrogating officer in the movie (Denzel Washington) was
smoking a cigarette and made a motion toward his neck, which
completely messed up the mental state of the young man.

At this point in the movie, members of the audience began to
laugh.

How is it that you can actually laugh at the fact that someone
has been tortured in his life?

Torture and pain may be foreign to us, but they are a stark
reality in the Middle East.

I have actually heard some accounts of what the corrupt leaders
do to people who are standing up, and I tell you that it’s enough
to make any human being cry for weeks.

It’s really sick when a movie can go to the extent of making
someone impervious to the anguish of human life; I guess they call
it desensitization.

What’s really unfortunate about this film is that many young
children will be going to see it.

If adults are not able to differentiate from what’s real and
what’s not, what hope is there for a 13-year-old kid? Such youths
are in a very vulnerable stage in their development. They are
beginning to develop their world view and their perspective on
life. They make simple inferences and create causal relationships.
X (Muslim) is put in the same frame as Y (senseless violence),
therefore X must imply or cause Y.

I highly doubt that any of our youth will go home, analyze the
film, go over it with a fine-toothed comb, read about the history
of the Muslims and come out with a correct view. How many of us
would do that?

Unfortunately, it is this very representation in the media that
has constantly made us jump to rash conclusions.

After the Oklahoma City bombing, Muslims and mosques around the
nation were threatened. Muslims became the victims of hate-crimes.
Muslim children were targeted and had to be watched over. This was
all due to our assumptions. I know that one mosque in the area
received a bomb threat targeting the building and Muslim
children.

This pressure did not let up until Timothy McVeigh was
implicated in the bombings.

Even if some of us in society are able to distinguish between
blatant Hollywood stereotypes and reality, that does not discount
the people out there who cannot.

Hollywood must stop producing such prejudiced films as "The
Siege." If you must have an enemy, don’t label him or her with one
race, culture or religion. And certainly don’t imply to the viewers
that any group is the enemy because of its race, culture or
religion.

Until the power elite of Hollywood realizes this, Muslims will
constantly suffer from negative stereotypes in films.

The question is: when will the prejudice stop?

Comments, feedback, problems?

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