Hollywood’s Anti-Islam Agenda - They Want the World to Hate Muslims!
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Disney on the one hand, Hollywood on the other, the film industry, social media, etc. There have been discussions for a long time that our subconscious is being played with. How did you first start to have these thoughts? In which movie did you first realize this? So, I came across a movie one night called "Hollywoodism." And it's interesting when I looked at that, then I thought, well, that looks very familiar to what's happening in Israel and the Palestinians. And of course, my brain starts thinking like, wow, have we been set up for this? When people see something, they see a visual picture, it affects them so much.
What surprised you the most when you were doing your research and made you say, "No way,"? Assalamualaikum, Sister Nur. So, I want to ask this. Disney on the one hand, Hollywood on the other, the film industry, social media, etc. There have been discussions for a long time that our subconscious is being played with. Some people think that this is a serious issue, and others think that these are conspiracy theories. As an American Muslim, you are doing research and analysis on these issues. Today, we have gathered the questions people have in their minds and we will talk about the most curious ones. Let's start if you're ready. Assalamualaikum. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Big breath. Okay.
Conspiracy series? I'm not sure. Let's see. Inshallah. How did you first start thinking about this topic? Which movie sparked your interest and why? So I came across a movie one night called "Hollywoodism." And the premise of this movie was that there was a group of immigrant Jewish men from Europe who came to the United States as refugees and so forth. And they had started film companies. And from small beginnings, they became the moguls and giants of the Hollywood industry.
And the movie went on to show how the initial movies in America, once they were talking movies and so forth, it was a common theme of the poor white American settler coming across the country in his covered wagon just with he and his wife, the kids, and loaded with stuff. Coming in trying to settle, trying to make a home, and being attacked by all these savage, barbaric, indigenous people. This was a very common theme throughout American movies, the Western. And this theme was going over and over and over again. So, there were a lot of these cowboy versus Indian kind of movies growing up, and they even talk about it called Spaghetti Westerns in Italy, for example.
So, people across the world know about this genre of movies for us. And it's interesting when I looked at that, and I thought, well, that looks very familiar to what's happening in Israel and the Palestinians. We're hearing the same sort of rhetoric about Palestinians being barbaric, being these animals, the indigenous people fighting against the poor settler who just wants to make a home. How unfair. How unjust. And, of course, my brain starts thinking like, wow. Have we been set up for this? Have we been set up for decades that this is what's going to be happening in Israel to support Israel? Because after all, these were Jewish immigrants and so forth.
And then you start looking at a lot of other elements of Hollywood too and like, I don't think this conspiracy. I think there has been some sort of a purpose behind this. So that Americans would be a little bit indoctrinated to be supportive of the poor Israeli, much like the poor settler who came through the West and was besieged by these awful people that just didn't want them there. And, of course, the Americans were turned against the indigenous population and eventually annihilated them and put them on reservations. Sounds a lot like what's happening in Palestine also. So I got to thinking and I started doing more research about this subject.
And I started coming across other movies as well. What surprised you the most when you were doing your research and made you say, "No way?" Well, was shocked that as an American, that's what we grew up on. You know, we went back to the black and white era in my generation. I remember the first color television program, for example, which was brought to you by Disney of all people. We used to wait for Sunday night, 6 o'clock, the beautiful, the wonderful world of Disney and living color.
When I watched this movie about Hollywoodism, it's like, wow, we have been, I don't want to say brainwashed, but sort of indoctrinated about a specific topic, and how we should feel about that topic, and how we relate to that topic and so forth. And as I said, I was kind of shocked because I've been fed that all my life. All my American friends and family have been fed that. And I think in all this, what's been happening in Palestine and Israel, a lot of us are saying, why aren't Americans more sympathetic to what's happening to the Palestinians? Why are they siding, no matter what atrocities the Jewish people commit, the Israelis commit, they're still siding with the Israeli side?
And looking at, again, the barbaric and indigenous population in Palestine. Why is that so easy for them to overlook atrocity after atrocity? And looking at that movie "Hollywoodism," I'm like, oh, well, we've been indoctrinated. We've been socialized to see that very thing happening. But it's still shocking, like, wow. This has been in front of us all these years. And I think a lot of Muslim immigrants and even the children of immigrants are not realizing what they've been watching on television for generations and what's been setting the standard, so to speak. So what were the first movies that you encountered that they start to give a different message to American society?
Actually, one of the first ones that I remember, I was in middle school at the time, there was a movie called Exodus. And again, it's about the poor Jewish story of them trying to make a home in Palestine, besieged by horrible Arabs, aka Muslims always, of course, that tortured them and fought them and were brutal and horrible to them. And again, it's the poor person just trying to make a home. So that movie was a big blockbuster in America. It had a beautiful theme song and a very handsome actor, of course, handsome actor. And a lot of the actors were Jewish, but hiding behind a Latinized name, for example.
But it really made an impact because I noticed in my school, some of my friends started wearing Star of David necklaces and telling me they want to go and join a kibbutz in Israel. My Christian friends. I'm like, wasn't your church saying, not too long ago, "Christ killers?" Didn't we see signs in Northern Wisconsin when I was a child in the resort saying "No Jews allowed?" Like, what's the shift? And I kept thinking all these, what's the shift? The shift, I think, was largely due to Hollywood. How Arabs and Muslims were constantly portrayed villainous, evil, bad, out to get everybody. There was a perplexing figure that you shared in your article.
In 1,000 portrayal, 986 of them were negative. Yeah, they were mostly negative. Maybe you can share that to give this, you know, fact. I think as far as I can remember as a child I saw cartoons and so forth. There's a very interesting book and documentary called "Reel Bad Arabs" by Jack Shaheen. "Reel" as in movie reel. And he did a research where he looked at thousands of films, from the beginning of the Hollywood industry. He looked at thousands of films to see how they portrayed Arabs. Like, why Arabs in the first place? Why do Arabs end up in Hollywood to begin with? And he found there was such a vilification and a stereotypical presence of Arabs in very, very early movies.
And they were always someone very evil. They were the villain of the piece. They were sneaky. They were lying. They were deceitful. They were scandalous. They were portrayed always as very dark, bearded, long bulbous nose, shifty eyed, irregular teeth. They looked scary to a child, for example, when you see them in the cartoons. And he said, you know, there were so many movies all throughout Hollywood where the Arab was always... They would stick in an Arab from nowhere at all. He was always a sheikh. He was always lusting after the white woman, as did, of course, the indigenous people, they would say, or as the African Americans would always say, they lusted after the white woman.
They were always pictured in the desert, had to be the desert, an oasis in the desert, the sheikh sitting there in his robes and everything surrounded by the harem, scantily clad women. Again this orientalism, coming through. And that's how they were always pictured. I said, was that just by coincidence or there was an intent in that? Why was this necessary? Why did they choose the Arab people to portray? And even in cartoons, I remember as a child seeing a particular cartoon where there was a, he looked more Indian and Hindu than Muslim, but he had a white turban on his hair, on his head, bare chest, bare legs, and a loincloth.
And he would be always coming out of a room going, "Salami, salami, baloney," you know, making obeisance to somebody. And I remember that because a colleague of mine when I was doing clerical work, and I was telling her about being Muslim. And I was saying, "Oh, we say Assalamualaikum." And she went right to that cartoon. She said, "Oh, salami, salami, baloney." I'm like, oh, that's really offensive, but I don't blame you because you were brought up on that. That thought connected with Muslim for you. This is how we represent Muslims. This is how we, and it's... They look more like the Fakir of the Hindus than they look like Muslims.
But the fact that they put "salam" in that and they made fun of our prostrations, I think all that, for me, that all has to be purposeful. That's not by accident. That's not just to be funny or humorous. Why do children need to see something like that? Very interesting, like you said, subconscious stuff. How do we start to think about people like that when we see them? Are people really affected by these works? And since when did this kind of work start? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. When people see something, they see a visual picture, it affects them so much. Even if it's in the print, which of course the media now is so scripted about world events.
We believe what it's written in print, we believe what we see with our eyes. Why then the major networks in America, for example, like CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, you don't see the videos and the images of what's happening in Palestine. You never have. It forms our consciousness as Westerners, as Americans, I think. From when I was growing up, we had a TV in the center of our home. And that TV's gotten larger and larger and larger, and it's always the focal point. Whatever country you go into now, the television is the focal point of the family. It's in the most prestigious place in the house, the most visual place in the house. So it's forming our consciousness very much by what we say.
A lot of people say, oh, does Hollywood affect what's happening in society, or does society affect what's happening in Hollywood? I think we're mimicking what we see on Hollywood. So, it's not just in America, it's worldwide. People dress the way we dress. You go to all the way to Japan, they're dressed like Americans. You go all the way to Japan, they're eating hamburgers, you know. So how can we counter all this? Are we supposed to make movies too? We don't seem to have the possibilities, the means to do this.
If we're going to plan to put our voices out, to do our dawah, to present movies, to present our history, we have to put aside our little bit casual lifestyles, read up and become attached to our Qur'an more. We need to be looking at very wonderful productions, your production, Towards Eternity, and Blogging Theology. There's a lot more to be learned out there, and we're not doing that as Muslims. We're accepting this whitewashing of American narrative of who we are as Muslims, and also the Jewish narrative of who we are too in Hollywood. We have to be able to know our history so that we can control our narrative, tell our story, who we are as Muslims.
How we had wonderful times in the Arab world, in Spain, in the Ottoman Empire, where we didn't have the problems, we didn't have the wars, we didn't have the sectarian violence that we see in other cultures all throughout the world, and certainly not the persecution or the torture of Jewish people. They always had a home with Muslims. Looking ahead, do you feel optimistic for Muslims? Should they be hopeful or despairing? It is not within the character of a Muslim to feel despair. From Surah Ali Imran, "Do not falter or grieve for you will have the upper hand if you are true believers." We have to hang on to that. Doctor Yacoub says, that I like so much.
He starts all his lectures now with a surah from the Qur'an. He said, "Why there's a big med over Jah? The victory takes time." And if you get perspective of historians, you see we've been through this before. The Mongols nearly wiped out the Islamic world. But there was a brave group that fought and fought and fought and finally won over the Mongols. And they were wiping up huge territories in the Muslim world. Jerusalem, there was a flag. The Christian flag was flying over Jerusalem for a hundred years. Salahuddin came and took back Jerusalem and made it a city of peace, which, again, the narrative, we keep hearing Arabs and Muslims and Jews have always been fighting. This is not true.
They were very congenially living in Muslim territories. When Islam and Muslims ruled Jerusalem, it was a place of peace for hundreds of years. It's only this recent conflict. But they would like to tell you their trope, that we've hated each other for eternity, which is not true. There's no truth to that whatsoever. And if you listen to historians, you find that to be true. You have to choose historians over Hollywood and Netflix. Or Towards Eternity, over Netflix and Hollywood.
What surprised you the most when you were doing your research and made you say, "No way,"? Assalamualaikum, Sister Nur. So, I want to ask this. Disney on the one hand, Hollywood on the other, the film industry, social media, etc. There have been discussions for a long time that our subconscious is being played with. Some people think that this is a serious issue, and others think that these are conspiracy theories. As an American Muslim, you are doing research and analysis on these issues. Today, we have gathered the questions people have in their minds and we will talk about the most curious ones. Let's start if you're ready. Assalamualaikum. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Big breath. Okay.
Conspiracy series? I'm not sure. Let's see. Inshallah. How did you first start thinking about this topic? Which movie sparked your interest and why? So I came across a movie one night called "Hollywoodism." And the premise of this movie was that there was a group of immigrant Jewish men from Europe who came to the United States as refugees and so forth. And they had started film companies. And from small beginnings, they became the moguls and giants of the Hollywood industry.
And the movie went on to show how the initial movies in America, once they were talking movies and so forth, it was a common theme of the poor white American settler coming across the country in his covered wagon just with he and his wife, the kids, and loaded with stuff. Coming in trying to settle, trying to make a home, and being attacked by all these savage, barbaric, indigenous people. This was a very common theme throughout American movies, the Western. And this theme was going over and over and over again. So, there were a lot of these cowboy versus Indian kind of movies growing up, and they even talk about it called Spaghetti Westerns in Italy, for example.
So, people across the world know about this genre of movies for us. And it's interesting when I looked at that, and I thought, well, that looks very familiar to what's happening in Israel and the Palestinians. We're hearing the same sort of rhetoric about Palestinians being barbaric, being these animals, the indigenous people fighting against the poor settler who just wants to make a home. How unfair. How unjust. And, of course, my brain starts thinking like, wow. Have we been set up for this? Have we been set up for decades that this is what's going to be happening in Israel to support Israel? Because after all, these were Jewish immigrants and so forth.
And then you start looking at a lot of other elements of Hollywood too and like, I don't think this conspiracy. I think there has been some sort of a purpose behind this. So that Americans would be a little bit indoctrinated to be supportive of the poor Israeli, much like the poor settler who came through the West and was besieged by these awful people that just didn't want them there. And, of course, the Americans were turned against the indigenous population and eventually annihilated them and put them on reservations. Sounds a lot like what's happening in Palestine also. So I got to thinking and I started doing more research about this subject.
And I started coming across other movies as well. What surprised you the most when you were doing your research and made you say, "No way?" Well, was shocked that as an American, that's what we grew up on. You know, we went back to the black and white era in my generation. I remember the first color television program, for example, which was brought to you by Disney of all people. We used to wait for Sunday night, 6 o'clock, the beautiful, the wonderful world of Disney and living color.
When I watched this movie about Hollywoodism, it's like, wow, we have been, I don't want to say brainwashed, but sort of indoctrinated about a specific topic, and how we should feel about that topic, and how we relate to that topic and so forth. And as I said, I was kind of shocked because I've been fed that all my life. All my American friends and family have been fed that. And I think in all this, what's been happening in Palestine and Israel, a lot of us are saying, why aren't Americans more sympathetic to what's happening to the Palestinians? Why are they siding, no matter what atrocities the Jewish people commit, the Israelis commit, they're still siding with the Israeli side?
And looking at, again, the barbaric and indigenous population in Palestine. Why is that so easy for them to overlook atrocity after atrocity? And looking at that movie "Hollywoodism," I'm like, oh, well, we've been indoctrinated. We've been socialized to see that very thing happening. But it's still shocking, like, wow. This has been in front of us all these years. And I think a lot of Muslim immigrants and even the children of immigrants are not realizing what they've been watching on television for generations and what's been setting the standard, so to speak. So what were the first movies that you encountered that they start to give a different message to American society?
Actually, one of the first ones that I remember, I was in middle school at the time, there was a movie called Exodus. And again, it's about the poor Jewish story of them trying to make a home in Palestine, besieged by horrible Arabs, aka Muslims always, of course, that tortured them and fought them and were brutal and horrible to them. And again, it's the poor person just trying to make a home. So that movie was a big blockbuster in America. It had a beautiful theme song and a very handsome actor, of course, handsome actor. And a lot of the actors were Jewish, but hiding behind a Latinized name, for example.
But it really made an impact because I noticed in my school, some of my friends started wearing Star of David necklaces and telling me they want to go and join a kibbutz in Israel. My Christian friends. I'm like, wasn't your church saying, not too long ago, "Christ killers?" Didn't we see signs in Northern Wisconsin when I was a child in the resort saying "No Jews allowed?" Like, what's the shift? And I kept thinking all these, what's the shift? The shift, I think, was largely due to Hollywood. How Arabs and Muslims were constantly portrayed villainous, evil, bad, out to get everybody. There was a perplexing figure that you shared in your article.
In 1,000 portrayal, 986 of them were negative. Yeah, they were mostly negative. Maybe you can share that to give this, you know, fact. I think as far as I can remember as a child I saw cartoons and so forth. There's a very interesting book and documentary called "Reel Bad Arabs" by Jack Shaheen. "Reel" as in movie reel. And he did a research where he looked at thousands of films, from the beginning of the Hollywood industry. He looked at thousands of films to see how they portrayed Arabs. Like, why Arabs in the first place? Why do Arabs end up in Hollywood to begin with? And he found there was such a vilification and a stereotypical presence of Arabs in very, very early movies.
And they were always someone very evil. They were the villain of the piece. They were sneaky. They were lying. They were deceitful. They were scandalous. They were portrayed always as very dark, bearded, long bulbous nose, shifty eyed, irregular teeth. They looked scary to a child, for example, when you see them in the cartoons. And he said, you know, there were so many movies all throughout Hollywood where the Arab was always... They would stick in an Arab from nowhere at all. He was always a sheikh. He was always lusting after the white woman, as did, of course, the indigenous people, they would say, or as the African Americans would always say, they lusted after the white woman.
They were always pictured in the desert, had to be the desert, an oasis in the desert, the sheikh sitting there in his robes and everything surrounded by the harem, scantily clad women. Again this orientalism, coming through. And that's how they were always pictured. I said, was that just by coincidence or there was an intent in that? Why was this necessary? Why did they choose the Arab people to portray? And even in cartoons, I remember as a child seeing a particular cartoon where there was a, he looked more Indian and Hindu than Muslim, but he had a white turban on his hair, on his head, bare chest, bare legs, and a loincloth.
And he would be always coming out of a room going, "Salami, salami, baloney," you know, making obeisance to somebody. And I remember that because a colleague of mine when I was doing clerical work, and I was telling her about being Muslim. And I was saying, "Oh, we say Assalamualaikum." And she went right to that cartoon. She said, "Oh, salami, salami, baloney." I'm like, oh, that's really offensive, but I don't blame you because you were brought up on that. That thought connected with Muslim for you. This is how we represent Muslims. This is how we, and it's... They look more like the Fakir of the Hindus than they look like Muslims.
But the fact that they put "salam" in that and they made fun of our prostrations, I think all that, for me, that all has to be purposeful. That's not by accident. That's not just to be funny or humorous. Why do children need to see something like that? Very interesting, like you said, subconscious stuff. How do we start to think about people like that when we see them? Are people really affected by these works? And since when did this kind of work start? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. When people see something, they see a visual picture, it affects them so much. Even if it's in the print, which of course the media now is so scripted about world events.
We believe what it's written in print, we believe what we see with our eyes. Why then the major networks in America, for example, like CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, you don't see the videos and the images of what's happening in Palestine. You never have. It forms our consciousness as Westerners, as Americans, I think. From when I was growing up, we had a TV in the center of our home. And that TV's gotten larger and larger and larger, and it's always the focal point. Whatever country you go into now, the television is the focal point of the family. It's in the most prestigious place in the house, the most visual place in the house. So it's forming our consciousness very much by what we say.
A lot of people say, oh, does Hollywood affect what's happening in society, or does society affect what's happening in Hollywood? I think we're mimicking what we see on Hollywood. So, it's not just in America, it's worldwide. People dress the way we dress. You go to all the way to Japan, they're dressed like Americans. You go all the way to Japan, they're eating hamburgers, you know. So how can we counter all this? Are we supposed to make movies too? We don't seem to have the possibilities, the means to do this.
If we're going to plan to put our voices out, to do our dawah, to present movies, to present our history, we have to put aside our little bit casual lifestyles, read up and become attached to our Qur'an more. We need to be looking at very wonderful productions, your production, Towards Eternity, and Blogging Theology. There's a lot more to be learned out there, and we're not doing that as Muslims. We're accepting this whitewashing of American narrative of who we are as Muslims, and also the Jewish narrative of who we are too in Hollywood. We have to be able to know our history so that we can control our narrative, tell our story, who we are as Muslims.
How we had wonderful times in the Arab world, in Spain, in the Ottoman Empire, where we didn't have the problems, we didn't have the wars, we didn't have the sectarian violence that we see in other cultures all throughout the world, and certainly not the persecution or the torture of Jewish people. They always had a home with Muslims. Looking ahead, do you feel optimistic for Muslims? Should they be hopeful or despairing? It is not within the character of a Muslim to feel despair. From Surah Ali Imran, "Do not falter or grieve for you will have the upper hand if you are true believers." We have to hang on to that. Doctor Yacoub says, that I like so much.
He starts all his lectures now with a surah from the Qur'an. He said, "Why there's a big med over Jah? The victory takes time." And if you get perspective of historians, you see we've been through this before. The Mongols nearly wiped out the Islamic world. But there was a brave group that fought and fought and fought and finally won over the Mongols. And they were wiping up huge territories in the Muslim world. Jerusalem, there was a flag. The Christian flag was flying over Jerusalem for a hundred years. Salahuddin came and took back Jerusalem and made it a city of peace, which, again, the narrative, we keep hearing Arabs and Muslims and Jews have always been fighting. This is not true.
They were very congenially living in Muslim territories. When Islam and Muslims ruled Jerusalem, it was a place of peace for hundreds of years. It's only this recent conflict. But they would like to tell you their trope, that we've hated each other for eternity, which is not true. There's no truth to that whatsoever. And if you listen to historians, you find that to be true. You have to choose historians over Hollywood and Netflix. Or Towards Eternity, over Netflix and Hollywood.