US study criticizes marginalizing Muslims in media and cinema

The ‘Los Angeles Times’ published a detailed article on Muslims in the United States of America, in which it indicated that Muslim immigrants suffer from abuse in the media, in addition to their suffering from marginalization in the media and cinema.

The newspaper referred to a recent study launched by USC Annenberg’s inclusion initiative; which indicated that Muslims make up 25 percent of the world’s population, but their presence as characters in popular TV series does not exceed 1.1 percent.

The study stated that images of Muslims are often linked to terrorism or violence, as the study conducted found that “more than 30% of the 98 Muslim personalities assessed were vulnerable to perpetrators of violence, while nearly 40% were the target of violent attacks.”

The author of the article said that there is a common trope that portrays Muslims in a bad light and relates to “the feeling of liberation of women when they take off the veil,” which makes the public assume that the veil is a symbol of oppression.

They are also commonly portrayed as submissive and fearful of their male counterparts, reinforcing the idea that Muslim women are vulnerable to oppression.

The author also indicated that the focus is often placed on the faith of those Muslim personalities, which reduces the chances of showing other aspects of their personalities, which makes the public believe that religion is the focus of every Muslim’s life, and also causes Muslims to isolate instead of integrating them and turning them into productive members of American societies.

Note that the aforementioned study revealed that among the 98 Muslim personalities in the sample, almost half of them referred to their faith in some way, and 23.5 percent of them revealed that they were portrayed non-verbally on the grounds that they are Muslims.