Jack Shaheen - Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

The stereotyping of Arabs in American movies is an old story, yet it is a story that, until now, no one has told. Shaheen has broken the silence with a book that will be the indispensable starting point for all future research on this neglected topic. The impact, even in summary, of scores of plots, one more vulgar and ignorant than the next, is numbing in its sheer ugliness. Shaheen attacks the stereotype not by denouncing it but, far more devastatingly, by documenting it.

Jack Miles, Pulitzer Prizewinning author and columnist at Beliefnet.com

This world-class presentation sets the facts straight about Hollywoods Arabs. Jack Shaheen, an articulate arbiter of fair play, has written a sterling book. It is a major contribution to the literature of film, and will change the way you think about movies and slanderous screen images.

Casey Kasem, radio and TV personality

If you cut us, do we not bleed? I ask all my Jewish friends to come to the defense of their Semitic cousins.

F. Murray Abraham, Academy Award-winning actor

Shaheen, through his extensive research, exposes the social injustice reinforced by Hollywood with regards to the Arab community. One can only be taken aback by the evidence of prejudice and insensitivity, which Shaheen illustrates... I hope this work will serve to sensitize those of us who can influence these images and, thereby the perceptions of our audience, to help to right a long overdue injustice.

Peter Macgregor-Scott, producer, A Perfect Murder and The Fugitive

A must-read!... [Shaheens] book should be in all libraries nationwide, especially those of government officials and filmmakers.

Camelia Anwar Sadat

The relentless cinematic assault on Arabs has been our cultures most insidious yet closeted disgraceuntil now. Jack Shaheens landmark work casts a penetrating spotlight on the movies that have shaped our infinitely distorted and warped views of Arab and Muslim life. With impeccable research, Shaheen combines a scholarly breadth, the irony of a keen social observer, and an advocates passion. Reel Bad Arabs is the definitive text on Arab screen images.

Renee Tajima-Pena, producer-director, Sundance award-winning film, My America

If you think overt racism in America is dead, think again. Jack Shaheen has shown in depressing detail in his book, Reel Bad Arabs, that anti-Semitism in motion pictures is more virulent than ever provided the Semites being portrayed are Arabs. Films from Exodus (1960) to Rules of Engagement (2000) have relentlessly stereotyped Arabs and Muslims in ways that would fit seamlessly into Der Strmer and the films of Nazi Germany.

James E. Akins, Middle East specialist and former US diplomat

[A] rousing wake-up call. Anybody concerned about education, racial justice, democracy, and critical literacy should buy and read this book, and then pass it on to a friend.

Henry A. Giroux, author of The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence

For years, with rare passion and eloquence, Jack Shaheen has raised a constant, resonating voice on behalf of the Arab in America. An undaunted warrior devoted to righting the wrongs of a distortion that have too long persisted, Shaheen has displayed unwavering dedication to the cause of fair play for ethnic groups who have suffered from misrepresentation by our film industryArabs most of all. For his courage in protecting the integrity of an entire people against the tides of prejudice in American mass culture, we are all deeply in his debt.

Asaad Kelada, television and stage director

When presented with this vast compendium about movie Arabs, I was at first delighted. But all too soon my emotions turned to sadness, then to anger. Were this book about movie Africans, Asians, Jews, Italians, Latinos, or Native Americans, the American public would be outraged. Yet for some perverted reason, we passively accept the film industrys immoral stereotyping of Arabs that Reel Bad Arabs documents with such convincing power. In bringing together upwards of 1,000 motion pictures, Shaheen moves from professor to prophet. The reader is moved to exclaim, Enough!

Fred Strickert, professor of religion, Wartburg College

Jack Shaheen is a one-man anti-defamation league who has exposed Hollywoods denigration of Arabs in most, if not all, of its films. His book casts light on the stereotyping Arabs have suffered at the hands of movie makers. But as they learn tolerance, this too shall pass.

Helen Thomas, distinguished journalist, White House correspondent and author

This important book delivers a frank and incisive look at how, for more than 100 years, American motion pictures have narrowly portrayed an entire people. Shaheen deserves plaudits for giving us this detailed, painstaking, and insightful study. His book is a must for all who care about the often abused teaching power of film images.

Carlos E. Corts, author of The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach about Diversity

...Some day, as a society, we will look back in horror at the routine media vilification of Arabs, especially in motion pictures, and wonder how the American public could have put up with it for so long.... When we can come to terms with the evidence and analysis that Shaheen provides, we will rid ourselves of the delusion that mass media outlets have informed us about Arab people.

Norman Solomon, nationally syndicated columnist, author of The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media

Jack G. Shaheen has long been a prophet in the Hollywood wilderness, writing from carefully documented scholarship that exposes the film industrys negative portrayals of Arabs and Muslims. In this splendidly detailed book, he provides readers with a valuable resource which will enable them to identify specific films that perpetuate stereotypical images. He also points to a very limited number of films which offer a more humane, realistic view of an entire people. This is a valuable contribution to both the casual film goer and the film scholar.

James M. Wall, senior contributing editor, The Christian Century

[R]ewards serious students and casual readers alike. Academic and public libraries with collections on the cinema would do well to add this fascinating and unique history. Highly recommended!

John Skillin, director of audio visual services, Montclair Public Library

Reel Bad Arabs is a book we have needed for a long time... And it is a necessary book, for it forces us to consider how seeing is believeing and why diminishing any group threatens all.

Randall Miller, co-author of Ethnic and Racial Images in American Film and Television

With Love to Bernice, Michael, and Michele

This revised and updated edition first published in 2009 by

OLIVE BRANCH PRESS
An imprint of Interlink Publishing Group, Inc.
46 Crosby Street, Northampton, Massachusetts 01060
www.interlinkbooks.com

Copyright Jack G. Shaheen 2001, 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.