Daniel Newman, professor of Arabic at Durham University, acknowledges that Western portrayals have come a long way from the lotus-eating, Orientalist fantasies of yesteryear, but barring a few exceptions, what has happened is that one cliché has been replaced by another; from the scimitar-wielding lascivious Arab, we have gone to the bomb-wielding terrorist Arab. While some moderate characters have been introduced in shows such as Homeland, he says, the pervading feeling is one of threat, based primarily if not exclusively on religion.
Id ask the animators to add benevolent market-vendors and heroic guards who befriend Aladdin, Shaheen said of the 1992 Aladdin, conscious of the image of Middle-Eastern people that might be made on the films young viewers. He also asked the producers to respect Islam and to add a humane character, Aladdins mother, an Arab woman willing to sacrifice everything for her sons happiness.
Whether the new film-makers choose to stand in the old guard or vanguard remains to be seen. Back in 1992, Shaheen cited cable television and videocassettes as making it easy for stereotypes to travel far and wide. That is even more important in an era of mass media, all-you-can-watch online streaming. It might be worth asking ourselves when the new film is released: what would Jack Shaheen think?
