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Whether it’s a stand-up special or a comedy series, when Muslim American Mo Amir started writing, he wrote what he knew.
comedian, writer and actor Palestine “Descent” was also well received for this. The second season of Amell’s Mo chronicles the tumultuous journey of Mo Najjar and his family seeking asylum in the United States. USA As a Palestinian refugee.
Amer’s show is part of an ongoing wave of television from Arab-American and Muslim-American creators who tell nuanced, complex stories about identity without falling into the stereotypes historically portrayed in Western media.
“Whenever you want to make a show that’s grounded, where the story and the cultural context feel very authentic and authentic, you write to it,” Amir told The Associated Press. “Once you do that, it feels very natural, and when you do that, other people can easily see themselves in it.”
At the start of season two, viewers find Najjar running a falafel taco stand in Mexico, locked in a van transporting stolen olive trees across the U.S.-Mexico border. Najjar is trying to retrieve the olive trees and return them to the farm where he, his mother and brother are trying to establish an olive oil business.
Both seasons of Mo were hits on Netflix. The first season won a Peabody Award. His third comedy special on Netflix, “Mo Amer: Wild World,” premiered in October.
Narratively speaking, season two ends before the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, but the show itself does not shy away from discussing Israel’s relationship with Palestine, the ongoing conflict in Gaza, or the situation of asylum seekers detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.
In addition to “Mo,” shows like “Muslim Matchmaker,” hosted by matchmakers Hoda Abrahim and Yasmin Elhady, connect Muslim Americans from across the country to find a spouse.
The animated series “#1 Happy Family USA” is produced by Rami YusufPam Brady, who co-wrote “Mo” with Amell, tells the story of an Egyptian-American Muslim family’s life in New Jersey after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.
Current events have an impact
The key to understanding how Arab or Muslim Americans are represented on screen is to understand the “historical, political, cultural and social context” in which the content is created, said Sahar Mohammad Khamis, a professor at the University of Maryland who studies Arab and Muslim media representations.
After the 9/11 attacks, Arabs and Muslims became villains in many American movies and television shows. Khamis said Arab ethnic background and Islam were also portrayed as synonymous. The villain is usually a brown-skinned man with an Arab-sounding name, Khamis said.
Shows like “Muslim Matchmaker” upend that narrative by showcasing the racial diversity of American Muslims, Elhadi said.
“It’s important for the show to show us who ordinary Americans are, but also to show us as people who live in different places and sometimes have dual realities, one foot in the east and one foot in the west, and the reality of really negotiating that context,” said Elhadi, who is Egyptian and Libyan American.
Before 9/11, people living in the Middle East were often portrayed to Western audiences as exotic creatures, living in tents in the desert and riding camels. In these media depictions, women often have little to no agency and are “confined to the harem”—the secluded place for women in traditional Muslim families.
Khamis said the idea harked back to the term “Orientalism,” coined by Palestinian-American scholar, political activist and literary critic Edward Said in his 1978 book of the same name.
Khamis noted that when it comes to countries like the UK and France, the media image of the people in the region is “created and manufactured not by the people themselves but through the eyes of outsiders. In this case, he said, the outsiders are the colonial/imperialist powers that have actually controlled these lands for a long time.”
She said a common criticism among those who study the portrayal of Arabs on Western television is that the characters are “bombers, billionaires or belly dancers”.
limitations of representativeness
Sanaz Alesafar, executive director of Storyline Partners and an Iranian-American, said she has seen some “wins” for Arab representation in Hollywood, pointing to the success of “Mo,” “Muslim Matchmaker” and “America’s Most Happy Family.” Storyline Partners helps writers, showrunners, executives and creators examine the historical and cultural context of their characters and narratives to ensure they are represented fairly and that one creator’s ideas do not infringe on those of another.
Al-Safar believes there is still a need for diverse stories about life in the Middle East and the English-speaking diaspora to be written and produced by people from these backgrounds.
“We are still isolated in very harmful ways in the popular imagination and popular culture,” she said. “Yes, we have these victories and they are incredible, but the centers of decision-making and power still trap us in these tropes and stereotypes.”
Egyptian-American Deana Nassar, head of creative talent at film production company Alamiya Filmed Entertainment, said it was important for her children to see themselves reflected on screen “for their own image.” Nassar said she would like to see a diverse population of decision-making roles in Hollywood. Without that, she said, “it’s a clear sign that representation isn’t going to get us all the way”.
Representation also affects how audiences view public policy, according to a recent study from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Results showed that participants who witnessed positive images of Muslims were less likely to support anti-democratic and anti-Muslim policies than participants who saw negative images.
For Amer, the limits on representation come from the decision-makers who approve projects, not the creators. He said the success of shows like his and others’ is a “start” but he’d like to see more industry recognition for his work and the work of others like him.
“That’s it, just keep writing, that’s it,” he said. “Just keep creating, keep making, and thankfully I have a deep understanding of this, so I’m really excited for what’s next,” he said.
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AP religion coverage is supported through the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US and grants from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The Associated Press is solely responsible for this content.