“With reference to American Sniper is there such a thing as Islamophobia?”
It is without a doubt that the Muslim community, particularly post 9/11, have been victim to discrimination and prejudice as a result of being fuelled by the media's offensive and ignorant representation. It has become common to blame all of this on Islamophobia. According to the Muslim News, "media reportage and public discourse on Islam and Muslims have a huge impact on Muslim labour market performance" . This has effectively led to a snowball effect and provoked propaganda among the media, where there is a constant and dominating representation of a derogatory version of Islam. Simply as Edward Said states, "The media have become obsessed with something called 'Islam,' which in their voguish lexicon has acquired only two meanings, both of them unacceptable and impoverishing." This extent has even reached Hollywood. For example, a film like American Sniper (2014), where there is typical image of Muslim terrorists being presented, even including children would undoubtedly be viewed as controversial. As a result, this highly offensive and "crossing the border" content has been viewed similarly by reviews to essentially be a “propaganda film” created by Clint Eastwood that attracts a crowd of offended viewers. In the light of this comment, it could be argued that this was a business decision in the sense that it is an attraction that contributes towards the film’s “notorious” and cynical success in a way, given that attracting headlines translate to more clicks, meaning more money. Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, based on the real-life Navy Seal Chris Kyle, who holds the record for the most kills in US military history. According to the film’s statistics "It took more than $350m, making it the highest grossing movie of 2014 in the US.” this is evident in Hollywood making controversial films purposely in order to gain revenue. The realism side to this, almost documentary-like also boosts the attention it is getting as well, drawing in a more mature demographic audience as a result. Other film examples that demonstrate this also includes United-93, a drama documentary, and which is a movie about a plane hijacking, and is also another representation of how religion and terrorist attacks are mutually linked, therefore followers of Islam are being criticized as a result, including making them victims of prejudicism and discrimination. Movies like United-93 based on real life events are significant because they're the "harsh" truth because they aren't influenced by having a deep and irrational hate for Islam, but was simply what had happened in that particular event of time. In short, the media using movies, documentaries, etc, has sort of provoked unwanted hate that introduces people with the term "Islamophobic" when they are seen to be criticizing Islam's doctrines or just presenting them in a way that offends them. In short, the question explores the issue if Islamophobia does really exist in Hollywood, or has it been derived and interpreted in the wrong sense? In essence, a BBC News article states “radical followers are giving those with more mainstream views a bad name." , echoing the view that it is almost offensive in every way if Islam is criticized or presented in films in this case. According to Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain, Muslims have never faced greater physical danger than they do now. The editor of Muslim News Ahmed Versi similarly believes that "after September 11th we had the largest number of attacks ever on Muslims". In extension of views from the supposed perpetrators themselves, the al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri states in 2005: “We are in a battle, and more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media." Obviously there is a clear identification of the media or in other words Hollywood's influence in shaping the image of Muslim community, and they very well acknowledge this.
Taking a look into American Sniper by Clint Eastwood, we see the film through American lenses that is supported by their own cultural style and political language. This includes when the film presents all the Islamic radicals in the film to automatically be the bad guys. The mis-en-scene for example - the terrorists in American Sniper are seen to be in typical attire that presents themselves as a "typical look of a terrorist". They're all dressed with ragged clothing, scarves, and a balaclava, as well as the typical weapon of choice; an AK-47 that connotes an enigma code for danger. Representative John Cooksey's statement after the Sept. 11 attacks that "If I see someone come in and he's got a diaper on his head and a fan belt around that diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over and checked," , which is a perfect example of an ignorant and derogatory view that still lingers around the Muslim community while they're faced with mindless judgements. This is a perfect demonstration of the hypodermic needle theory, where audiences are being injected stereotypes about certain ethnic groups, which obviously a lot of them are false and damages the victim’s image. The media and Hollywood's influence in the ethnic minorities' judgement was as described "Social media presents a huge opportunity for us to reach out to people who may not know about Islam or Muslims. Thousands of Americans have never met a Muslim but they have access to us through social media." . Noteworthingly, we sort of see this being demonstrated in American Sniper itself. The film’s antagonist is a former Olympic sharpshooter, Mustafa, rendered all but mute during the film. While Chris Kyle may be far from perfect, his flaws actually get presented on screen, where Mustafa is simply a caricature of an evil Arab and we don't really delve much into his narrative of the plot. In result there is again a clear and bias distinction between the enemy's and the hero's presentation in this film, and there is a hegemonic view of the American character always being presented as a hero. Similarly, there is a particular scene in the film where even the Islamic family that offered to help Chris Kyle and his squad had hidden stashes of weaponry. This was quite a surprising and pivotal point the film, given that the audience had come to a resolution that some residents of Iraq were not the enemies, however Eastwood's version of the story showed that they were instead also working for the militants. This as mentioned earlier marginalizes Muslim people in a way, whether if they're a family, an accountant, a soldier or whoever, there is always a negative image being portrayed of them. The organisation 'ADC', which describes itself as the largest Arab civil rights organisation in the US said a "majority of the violent threats we have seen over the past few days are result of how Arab and Muslims are depicted in American Sniper" . This influences and fuels the preferred reading of the Islam community and how they're always somehow seen as a threat, therefore creating a moral panic and as commented by several review companies "do fault Eastwood for making what is, essentially, a propaganda film." Throughout its history, American cinema has employed a lamentably narrow set of stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims. “They’ve been the most vilified group in the history of Hollywood,” says the academic and author Jack Shaheen. His book Reel Bad Arabs surveys some 1,200 depictions of Arabs and Muslims in the movies. By his estimation, “roughly 97% are unfavourable, coloured by orientalist myths, racist demonising and xenophobic paranoia.” Some other scenes that also support this claim in the film are moments such as where a kid is almost predisposed to pick up the nearest weapon and fire anything on site - they are that brainwashed. This was a particularly controversial scene that came up relatively early in the movie without any sort of build up or background to why this had happened, and again supports the view that there is a bias view being laid out between the enemy and hero. This leaves us with questions and speculations about the nature of this scene and the stereotypical “Muslim behaviour”, and ignorantly leaves us with the answer of the child being a terrorist. This scene in American Sniper was seen to have “crossed the line” and as a result the film was bombarded with negative reviews, insinuating that the directors and producers were Islamophobic. American Sniper’s visuals accompanied by tension created through the use of sound effects also adds more to the realism sense in the film. An example is again an again early scene in the film where Kyle has orders to eliminate a young child that was about to attack US soldiers. Morally, he of course declines and expresses his frustration by murmuring "Son of a b*tch"; "F*ckin' drop it". Luckily the film didn't break the ice and instead continued without the death of a child. The use of sound effects was significant, given that the tension and the volume were synonymous. As the tension increased, so did the sound gain, giving a steady increase in tempo. Scenes such as this “play” around with controversy as the audience are left to hold tight to their seat and see if American Sniper would present such explicit content. However above all this, there is always the financial drive that catalyzes these kinds of films to be produced regardless of what offensive content is being presented. The budget for American Sniper was $58.8 million, while box office hits were $547.4 million, equating to just about a tenth of what was spent against what was earned. Point being, these film producing institutions do not have regard and do not value the importance of the ethical and moral consequences of what group and ideologies are being presented in a film and is instead purely profit-driven, which is another counter-argument if people do see films like American Sniper to be Islamophobic. A similar situation was evident while looking at United-93's success, where it began with a budget of $15 million and a box office of $76.3 million. The film has sparked it's popularity after attacks regarding Islam extremism, especially events like the New York 9/11 Twin Tower bombings. The media after this incident has "ripped apart" a new view of the Muslim community, where they now are subject to even more prejudicism and discrimination on a regular basis as a result. This perfectly demonstrates the negative impact that the media has, that it has introduced us with a hypodermic needle model where the audience are being "injected" with views about Islam as a whole. This damage done now and still to this day has paved a way that opens up criticism towards Islam even more, making the media to blame for. The media's unfair representations are evident when statistics show common nouns used in stories that were used in relation to Islam and Muslims. For example, collectively according to statisics "Terrorist - used in 22% of stories; and Extremist - used in 18% of stories. The other nouns frequently used were:Cleric (used in 11% of stories)Islamist (used in 7% of stories)Suicide bomber (used in 7% of stories)Convert (used in 5% of stories)Militant (used in 5% of stories)." In extension, even Tahir Abbas, a British professor, adds to this and states "Words such as ‘fundamentalist’, ‘extremist’ and ‘radical’ are regularly used in Apocalyptic headlines across all sectors of the British press. They create the impression of a mounting universal conspiracy directed against British society by an organised and coherent army of bloodthirsty agents. It is evidence of a tendency to view all Islamic movements as originating from the same root and as being equally hostile to Britain." As a result it seems that the media in fact encourages these type of headlines simply for the cynical fact that it is for profit-driven purposes such as online newspaper views from clicks, just like stated earlier with the case of American Sniper. These news stories by the media even apparently has affected people's views so much that ‘84% of British people tended to be more suspicious about Muslims’ , meaning that it has spreaded on a pandemic level and dehumanizes these Muslim victims. This just tells us the extent to how severe the case is against Islam, and how much the media has an influence in creating these harmful stereotypes that these movies seem to reinforce again and again.
United-93, typically produced after the burning news of the pentagon and Twin Tower attacks were made to "remind" people of the atrocities that happened on the day, and to cleverly pick a story, narrative and topic that already had a co-existing large base of people therefore would attract more attention and film hits. Its a film that people would feel more connected to and has a realism side to it, therefore creating a more convincing and realistic moral panic against Muslim people. This realistic approach enforces Islamophobia in people even more since the movie setting and conventions are that of what you would find in the real world. Yet again however there is a profit-driven motivation to the production of these kind of films and could be argued that these films do not in fact perpetuate hate for Islam therefore they are instead being misinterpreted. Edward Said, author of 'Orientalism' states "there's a big difference between reality and representation" , and is evident when people merge the two together and develop a stereotype such as with Islam in modern society. An example of this includes identification which has also been introduced, “The motif—for it would be wrong to describe the costume as more than crudely suggestive—was to have been Arab: robes, headgear, sandals.” , which is obviously a stereotype that is well known, however as we see in United-93 the terrorists in the film are dressed perfectly as any American passenger, and this would therefore create anxiety and alertness that anyone who follows or “looks” Islamic could be posed as a threat. This then could result in an irrational and “unhealthy” development of fear or phobia against Muslim people that would then continue to discriminate on a larger scale unless these stereotypes have been cleared. This result with the combination of ultra-realistic cinematography just like American Sniper almost portrays the films as a realism documentary, which is believable as these films were influenced and based off real life events. The term ‘Islamophobia’ then means it has gone through an evolution in it’s definition when people think it only involves the Muslim community when it in fact involves the Jews too for example when Edward Said is said to have “used it in conjunction with anti-semitism to illustrate the similarities he saw between prejudice towards Muslims and that towards Jewish people.”
Similarly on the other hand, we see a juxtaposition between the conventional "Southern kind of people" and Islam. Americans see Islamic terrorists to be a threat and vice versa when Islam see American soldiers to be a threat. Films like this remind American liberals that "if you're not proud to be an American, then leave, this includes unpatriotic politicians and the media." And there is a very tyrannical tone set and is a temptation to violence, even though there is no right hero and right villain being presented between the two. This as a result could agree with the question by concluding that specifically films like American Sniper try to desperately come out as to be controversial and attention grabbing by making it offensive on purpose. It also however opens up other roots of issues, agreeing to the fact that the media damages Islam. An example is that these sort of films in a way provokes hostility from the subjects being presented, and in this case a derogatory view of Muslim people would surely result in retaliation from their frustration, especially from radicalists/extremists. Examples include a film that is clear and plain to be anti-Islamic such as 'Innocence of Muslims' by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, that resulted in protests as the move was perceived as denigrating of the Islamic prophet Muhammad caused demonstrations and violent protests against the video to break out on September 11 2012 in Egypt and spread to other Arab and Muslim nations and to some western countries. The protests have led to hundreds of injuries and over 50 deaths and this just goes to show how films are more than offensive. While threats like these as a result may be passive and be derived from other causes, Sam Harris, the author of 'Islam and the Future of Tolerance', quotes "As an atheist, I am angry that we live in a society in which the plain truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population." (in the context of both Islam and secular talk). For this reason, figures like Sam Harris have been criticized of being an Islamophobe, to which then his response continues with “Islamophobia. A word created by fascists, & used by cowards, to manipulate morons.” and that “In its earliest historical usage, the term ‘Islamophobia’ described prejudice and hostility towards Muslims—not an ‘irrational fear of Islam,’” . This then goes back to the question explaining that there is misinterpretation of what is being said and what is being intended when there is no distinction between hate on Islam as a religion and hate on Islam as in for the atrocities extremists has caused, therefore restricting opinions being made. This argues that labelling someone as an 'Islamophobe' shouldn't be used as an excuse and left as invalid when Islam is criticized for its doctrines and the religious practices it goes through, which is notoriously known for things such as terrorist attacks in the name of Allah. Other comments about it’s definition also include by Petley and Richardson claiming ‘Islamophobia’ as a quick way of describing discussions and behaviours that “express and perpetuate feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Muslims, particularly but not only in countries where people of Muslim heritage live as minorities” . Chris Allen also adds to this in his book straightforwardly called ‘Islamohphobia’ as he states that “confusion can arise when people who are anti-religious (and are against all forms of organized religion) are called Islamophobic as this suggests they are only anti-Islam; a clear distinction should be made.” Therefore in summary this side of the argument addresses the deeper meaning when people make frank statements about Islam, but could simply be seen as an 'Islamophobe' at plain lens when it is misinterpreted. For this reason the media has been seen to have a negative influence when they are frank and blunt about the real issue at hand.
However on the other hand there is still manipulation in terms of news headlines in the media, and this often linked with Hollywood. The suggestion is that films from Hollywood have contributed by sparking a bad name upon ethnic minorities such as Muslims in this case, and as a result the news industry has taken advantage of this in order to gain revenue. Effectively, the news industry has taken this conflict a step forward by exploiting it and having no regard for the ethical and moral consequences. Newspaper companies such as Daily Express, The Economist, Daily Telegraph and The Sun have a record of articles about Muslims that were found to be factually incorrect. Daily Express 24th October 2005 “Hogwash: Now the PC brigade ban piggy banks in case they offend Muslims.” The story suggested that piggy banks were being withdrawn from Halifax and Nat West banks as Muslims are forbidden from eating pork in the Qur’an so would be offended by them. In reality, Halifax explained that the promotional poster campaign that included piggy banks had come to an end and had been replaced by a new campaign featuring personal loans. The removal of the piggy bank poster was based on nothing more than a routine change of promotion within the bank and there had not been physical piggy banks in any branches of Halifax for many years. This sole example links back to the exploring of even reputable companies, such as Daily Express in the UK in this case, who have the audacity to spread false stories in order for their own agenda and financial benefit. Marshall McLuhan, a professor and public intellectual perfectly comments on this, stating that “Today we are beginning to notice that the new media are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression.” This as a result again puts forth the moral panic readers might experience; that a bad image of Muslims in one article might evolve to a bad image of every Muslim, making it spread on a pandemic level. This as a result too demonstrates the ‘opinion leaders’ belief. Daily Express is a very reputable newspaper company that has been in the industry for more than a century, so for a public figure and constitution like them to “feed” vulnerable audiences that are unfamiliar, is very unethical. Edward Said comments on this issue perfectly, stating that “the orient and Islam have a kind of extra real, phenomenologically reduced status that puts them out of reach of everyone.” The point here is that those Muslim victims are not being given a voice in order to respond to such accusations against any party, and are helpless in any situation to do so. We are led to believe in a hegemonic view that respected news companies are there to service us in legitimate and certified sources, but this is not the case. Hollywood’s approach to this is similar. Generally, Muslims in Hollywood exist as one-dimensional characters: ignorant and intolerant menaces who simply kidnap or execute westerners in the name of their god, and there is no other resolution or reason for doing so. In some sense, Hollywood is almost shaming anyone who follows the faith of Islam, or is mimicking anything negative Hollywood can find. This of course ranges from even children’s cartoons, and as described from an article, “cartoons like Aladdin which is the epitome of Orientalism.” Having said all that, Hollywood of course is not entirely to blame for the rise of Islamophobia in the U.S. and in the rest of the world. Horrific attacks such as the ones in San Bernardino, Orlando to Berlin, Germany, and Nice, France do in fact help shape that narrative, however Hollywood shares a lot of the responsibility as well as it is a multi-billion industry which has the power to influence numbers of people in the United States and around the globe. American Sniper’s protagonist based on the real Chris Kyle, who was at one point viewed to be on the same page as to those who caused the atrocities of Orlando shootings and the Columbine massacres. This kind of hyperbolic language used to compare a USA soldier to terrorists or psychopaths has attracted attention. Lindy West, a writer, film criticiser editor, and feminist comments that “The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer.” The Guardian’s article in which she had stated this was full of negative reviews about the film. She extends her vent towards the film, complaining that “Clint Eastwood’s film about Navy Seal Chris Kyle has hit a raw nerve in America, with right wingers calling for the rape or death of anyone ungrateful enough to criticise his actions.” Essentially, she too is trying to hint a bias side of the enemy and hero being portrayed. Chris Kyle, the hero that represents America is glamorized in his merits and service for the Army, while terrorists in the film are simply being dehumanized in almost every way. There is as a result a clear identification of some sort of Islamophobia being portrayed in Hollywood’s films, and the bias causes public intellectuals like West to simply ask “Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero?”
In conclusion, the effects arising with the media's representation of the Muslim community regarding both in secular and religious terms has undoubtedly caused a havoc and casted a bad name for them. The Muslim victim’s passive response and presence to this has led to an increasing "cult" of hatred for Islam, ranging from manipulating and distorting headlines to support one's own agenda in newspapers, to making indirect films that attack Islam. Perhaps the ever growing hate towards them has added more fuel to the fire. The real problem that the media persists to avoid is that Islam extremists are a minority that ruin their faith for the rest of the other followers, to which the media knowingly avoids, and to which the consumers ignorantly tends to believe. All this in result has led to a derogatory and hard social norm that the Islamic community has to live by, and normally on a social basis they have continued to be victims to these offensive representations.
Bibliography
Academic books
Sam Harris, Maajid Nawaz. (2014). Islam and the Future of Tolerance. USA: Harvard University Press
Edward W. Said. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books
Edward W. Said. (1983). What the Rest Think of the West. USA: University of California, Berkeley
Julian Petley, Robin Richardson. (2011). Pointing the Finger. USA: Oneworld Publications
Chris Allen. (2010). Islamophobia. USA: Routledge
Sharmit Saggar. (2008). Pariah Politics: Understanding Western Radical Islamism and What Should be Done. USA: Oxford University Press
Tahir Abbas. (2001). Media Capital and the Representation of South Asian Muslims In the British Press: An Ideological Analysis. London: Routledge
Jack G. Shaheen. (2015). Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. USA: Interlink Books
Nathan Lean. (2012). The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims. London: Pluto Press
Deepa Kumar. (2012). Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. USA: Haymarket Books
Melanie Phillips. (2006). Londonistan: How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within. London: Encounter Books
Arno Tausch. (2007). Against Islamophobia. USA: Indiana University, Nova Science Publishers
Newspaper articles
Tanya, B. (2014) What does 'Islamophobia' actually mean?
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/is-islamophobia-real-maher-harris-aslan/381411/
Sam, H. (2006) Jewcy's Big Question: Why Are Atheists So Angry?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-harris/jewcys-big-question-why-a_b_35180.html
Edward, W, S. (2015) What the Rest Think of the West
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=f9okDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=The+motif%E2%80%94for+it+would+be+wrong+to+describe+the+costume+as+more+than+crudely+suggestive%E2%80%94was+to+have+been+Arab:+robes,+headgear,+sandals&source=bl&ots=cj4egwn_mz&sig=aOPLTsAwonZ1kjsa9-x_I-blmQo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5xeXfzbjRAhUBfxoKHbv9AQgQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=The%20motif%E2%80%94for%20it%20would%20be%20wrong%20to%20describe%20the%20costume%20as%20more%20than%20crudely%20suggestive%E2%80%94was%20to%20have%20been%20Arab%3A%20robes%2C%20headgear%2C%20sandals&f=false
Sharmit, S. (2008) Pariah Politics: Understanding Western Radical Islamism and What Should be Done
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GCfV-v8K5cgC&pg=PA158&lpg=PA158&dq=%E2%80%9884%25+of+British+people+tended+to+be+more+suspicious+about+Muslims%E2%80%99,&source=bl&ots=2A6p62VVJO&sig=OAJPi4gWJuL_hKOYrb97mWmWqh4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMxM2sz7jRAhXFzRoKHXpGAo8Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9884%25%20of%20British%20people%20tended%20to%20be%20more%20suspicious%20about%20Muslims%E2%80%99%2C&f=false
David, E. (2014) Clint Eastwood Turns American Sniper Into a Republican Platform Movie
http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/movie-review-american-sniper.html
(1998) UK press 'fuels Islamophobia'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/172782.stm
Kerry, M. Paul M. Justin L. (2008) The Representation of British Muslims in the National Print News Media 2000-2008
http://www.channel4.com/news/media/pdfs/Cardiff%20Final%20Report.pdf
Ahmed, J Versi. (2016) Welcome speech by Ahmed J Versi, Editor and Publisher of The Muslim News at the Fourteenth ‘The Muslim News Awards for Excellence’
http://muslimnews.co.uk/news/uk/welcome-speech-ahmed-j-versi-editor-publisher-muslim-news-fourteenth-muslim-news-awards-excellence/
Clark, K Ervin. (2006) 'Stereotyping terrorists: The usual suspects - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/opinion/27iht-edervin.2066296.html
Steve, R. (2016) '‘Death to the infidels!’ Why it’s time to fix Hollywood’s problem with Muslims'
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/08/death-to-infidels-time-to-fix-hollywoods-problem-muslims
Ava, V. (2014) ''People grab our veils, call us terrorists and want us dead': What it's really like to be a Muslim woman in Britain"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10804880/Islamophobia-People-grab-our-veils-call-us-terrorists-and-want-us-dead-What-its-really-like-to-be-a-Muslim-woman-in-Britain.html
Miqdaad, V. (2016) 'Why the British media is responsible for the rise in Islamophobia in Britain'
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-the-british-media-is-responsible-for-the-rise-in-islamophobia-in-britain-a6967546.html
Haroon, M. (2016) 'Islamophobia Is Ruining America—But Not How You Think'
http://time.com/4234128/islamophobia-in-america/
Kim, G. (2016) 'The United States of Islamophobia'
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/05/the-united-states-of-islamophobia/
Samhita, M. (2016) 'Islamophobia in America is worse on 9/11/2016 than it was on 9/11/2001'
https://mic.com/articles/153864/islamophobia-in-america-is-worse-on-9-11-2016-than-it-was-on-9-11-2001#.pmzLCKz4C
Nico, L. (2015) '“American Sniper’s” Muslim problem: How Clint Eastwood embraces Chris Kyle’s toxic ideas'
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/05/american_snipers_muslim_problem_how_clint_eastwood_embraces_chris_kyles_toxic_ideas_partner/
Javeria, S. (2011) 'Impact of Media and Social Media on Islam and Muslims'
http://messageinternational.org/impact-of-media-and-social-media-on-islam-and-muslims/
BBC News. (2015) 'American Sniper film 'behind rise in anti-Muslim threats'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30972690
Nikolas, B. (2017) 'From Aladdin to Homeland: How Hollywood Can Reinforce Racial and Religious Stereotypes'
http://mvslim.com/racial-religious-stereotyping-hollywood/
Aaron Y, Z. (2015) ‘The State of al-Qaeda’
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-state-of-al-qaeda
Clark K, Ervin. (2006) ‘Stereotyping terrorists: The usual suspects - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune’
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/opinion/27iht-edervin.2066296.html
Javeria, S. (2011) ‘Impact of Media and Social Media on Islam and Muslims’
http://messageinternational.org/impact-of-media-and-social-media-on-islam-and-muslims/
Lindy, W. (2015) 'The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero?'
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/06/real-american-sniper-hate-filled-killer-why-patriots-calling-hero-chris-kyle
