CAIR
Targets Disney With Islamophobia Accusations
by Hany Ghoraba
Special to IPT News
June 13, 2019
|
|
|
|
Share:  
|
  Be the
first of your friends to like this.
What happens when you take a classic story created by a Syrian writer,
modernized with a multi-ethnic, multi-national cast, that tops the box
office from the United States to the Middle East?
If the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is involved, you get
empty cries of "Islamophobia."
It wants "movie reviewers nationwide to address concerns about
racial and religious stereotypes perpetuated by the Disney film
'Aladdin.'"
The summer blockbuster is based on the famous "Arabian Nights"
story and is a live action remake of the classic Disney animated
film.
"The Aladdin myth is rooted by racism, Orientalism and
Islamophobia," CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a May 21 statement. "To release it
during the Trump era of rapidly rising anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and
racist animus only serves to normalize stereotyping and to marginalize
minority communities."
Three weeks after its release, there have been no reports that the film
is being embraced by the president's supporters or fueling any political
sentiment whatsoever. That's because it's a movie.
And that may explain why CAIR's protest has not garnered much traction.
A Seattle Times review
described the movie as "misconceived" and said it "lacks
real magic." It briefly mentioned the CAIR complaint, but countered
with Disney's emphasis that "its cast is the most ethnically diverse
in the company's history." CAIR's complaint is an odd one, since
Muslims do not constitute a race, and represent ethnicities from across the globe.
As for claims that the story is rooted in Orientalism, the "Arabian
Nights" stories are a Middle Eastern creation that has existed
for more than a millennium. "Arabian Nights" stories originate
from Persian, Indian, Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi stories. According to
Egyptian actress Lubna Abdel Aziz, television shows based on the
"Arabian Nights" often premiered during the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan.
It's also odd that Awad labels the film an example of Islamophobia when
it is based on a story that has been popular among children and adults in
predominantly Muslim countries. The story of "Aladdin and the
Wonderful Lamp," is believed to have been created by 18th
century Syrian writer Hanna Diyab, and added to the "Arabian
Nights" stories by French Antoine Galland.
"Arabian Nights," also known as "The Tales of Thousand
and One Nights," is a world-renowned series of fables from the Middle
East and one of the most popular collection of fantasy stories of all time.
These include the world famous "Aladdin," "Sinbad the
Sailor" and "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves." CAIR's release
claims the story is "[a]n invention of French orientalist Antoine Galland and made popular in English by Richard
Burton who overly-sexualized the story to further exotify Arabs and
Muslims."
"Arabian Nights" was shown on Arabic television networks for
decades. Television networks in Egypt, Kuwait,
and Morocco
produced their own versions. Egyptian television,
radio
and cinema produced many versions of the stories since the 1940s
including modern adaptations of "Aladdin." All of these
versions share the trappings of the original "Arabian Nights"
stories, including magic carpets, forbidden love, genies, bazaars and
crooked politicians, which Awad describes as Orientalist and Islamophobic.
|
Actor Mena Massoud
repeating "Long Live Egypt" in his Instagram message to fans.
|
The new Disney's Aladdin star is the Egyptian-born Canadian Mena Massoud.
Massoud sent an Arabic-language Instagram message
to Egyptians expressing his pride to be part of the movie and hoping that
they would enjoy it. The message sent the social media in a frenzy of support
for the young actor who ended his message with the slogan, "Tahya
Masr," or "Long Live Egypt," three times. This is a slogan
for the June 30, 2013 revolution that prompted the Egyptian army to oust
Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
Massoud's use of the phrase angered Islamists and their allies, who
called for a boycott of the movie.
In predominantly Muslim Jordan, where most of "Aladdin" was
filmed, its stars were introduced by Crown Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah
during a private screening for children hospitalized
at Amman's King Hussein Cancer Center. The movie became an instant hit in
Jordan and Egypt,
and topped
the box office charts in the United Arab Emirates, where the film was
praised for its accurate use
of Arabic language. The movie was even played in cinemas in Saudi Arabia and topped the box
office there.
In the United States, the film grossed
$240,458,331 at the box office in its first three weeks and $615,493696 worldwide to date.
Attacking works of art and cinema has been part of the Muslim
Brotherhood agenda in Egypt for decades. When it reached power in Egypt in
2012, one of its first orders of business was targeting
elderly comedic actor Adel Imam. He was convicted of insulting Islam and blasphemy because of
his anti-Islamist stance. A court later dismissed
the charges.
During his time in Parliament, Morsi called for the banning of ballet
dancing. An anti-ballet campaign was initiated by his Muslim Brotherhood Minister of Culture
Alaa Abdel Aziz during Morsi's year as Egypt's
president. Most Islamists believe
that all forms of dance and music are religiously prohibited.
CAIR was created in 1994 within a Muslim Brotherhood network and
continues to embrace many of the same issues as the Egyptian Islamist
movement. It condemned the Saudi Arabian murder of Washington Post
columnist Jamal Khashoggi, but ignores systemic abuses journalists endure under
Turkey's Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
CAIR's offense at "Aladdin" seems to indicate it feels better
qualified to judge what is bigoted against Muslims than the Muslim
audiences in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which seem to enjoy
the film. It has anointed itself the guardian and watchdog for what is
anti-Islamic.
Thankfully, it does not appear that many people are listening.
Hany
Ghoraba is an Egyptian writer, political and counter-terrorism
analyst at Al Ahram Weekly, author of Egypt's
Arab Spring: The Long and Winding Road to Democracy and a
regular contributor to the BBC.
Related Topics: Media
| Hany
Ghoraba, CAIR,
Islamophobia
accusations, Aladdin,
Arabian
Nights, Nihad
Awad, Luna
Abdel Aziz, Hanna
Diyab, Antoine
Galland, Mena
Massoud, Muslim
Brotherhood, Mohamed
Morsi, Adel
Imam
|
Print
Send
RSS
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment