Elham Asaad Buaras
Muslim characters in TV dramas in the West are not only severely underrepresented but also disproportionately represented as foreigners as well as perpetrators and victims of violent crime, according to a recent study by an inclusion think tank.
The study by the University of South California (USC) Annenberg Inclusion Initiative examined popular dramas in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the US and found that Muslims make up only 1 per cent of the characters,
The report, which was released on September 7 and titled In the Erased or Extremists: The Stereotypical View of Muslims in Popular Episodic Series, surveyed 8,885 characters with speaking roles in 200 top-rated TV shows from 2018 and 2019.
Apart from the number deficit, the majority of the Muslim characters were depicted as adult Middle Eastern or North African men. This is despite Muslims being the most racially and ethnically diverse religious group in the world. Muslim TV characters were also linked to violent acts and behaviour.
Over 30 per cent of the 98 Muslim characters were perpetrators of violence, while nearly 40 per cent were targets of such attacks. Less than one-third were portrayed as native English speakers, underscoring depictions of Muslims as “foreigners.”
Over half of non-native English-speaking Muslim characters spoke English with an accent, while the remaining 48.4 per cent of Muslim characters only spoke non-English languages like Arabic, French, Urdu, and Hausa (a Nigerian dialect).
Furthermore, the ratio of male Muslim characters to female ones in these television shows is 174 to 1, and when women and girls do appear, they are typically portrayed as “fearful and endangered.”
45.9 per cent of Muslim characters lived in Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and parts of Nigeria. The characters who appeared in these places were primarily associated with terrorist activities or other military conflicts.
E.g., the action in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan moved between Yemen, Syria, and Muslim neighbourhoods in Paris in pursuit of a network of extremists, after the show opened on a bombing in Lebanon. Muslim characters in Nigeria were members of the Boko Haram militia.
When the plots were not directly involved in the perpetration of violence related to religious beliefs, Muslim characters played military roles or were family members or friends of extremists. In other words, when Muslim characters lived in Muslim-dominated countries, they were somehow connected to terrorist activities.
“Muslim girls and women were shown to be fearful, upset, or anxious about a variety of circumstances. Physical peril was also common for Muslim women who faced direct threats and actual violence, including the threat of sexual violence. At least three series included depictions or discussions surrounding the vulnerability of Muslim women to sexual exploitation.
This was directly shown through predatory behaviour aimed at Muslim girls and women. This was shown through conversations and portrayals of child marriage, and storylines regarding girls who had been kidnapped, raped, and become pregnant by militants.”
The occupations held by Muslim characters were also explored. Sixty percent of Muslim characters were employed. Male Muslim characters were far more likely (78.4 per cent) than female Muslim characters (21.6 per cent) to be shown with a job.
The largest percentages of Muslim characters with a job were criminals (37.2 per cent), while 15.7 per cent worked in law enforcement. These figures demonstrate that popular series continued to reinforce old notions, often pitting “good” Muslims against “bad.”
“The findings in this study reveal how rarely content creators think about including Muslims in popular storytelling—particularly girls and women,” said Stacy L. Smith, founder of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
“As a result, viewers would have to watch hours and hours of content before seeing even a single portrayal of a Muslim character—with even more time required to find a portrayal that is not linked to violence or extremism.”
