Representations of Muslims in Post-9/11 American Cinema: Images of Imperial Hegemony in American Sniper, Babel and 24

Abstract

This study investigates portrayals of Muslims in post-9/11 American cinema. The motion pictures and television series selected for analysis perpetuate an Orientalist discourse that is aimed at legitimizing the West’s hegemony over Arabs. Hollywood’s support for the draconian, unprecedented measures the Bush Administration introduced in the tumultuous aftermath of 9/11 does not only reinforce the perception of Muslims as primitive savages deserving of every cruelty inflicted on them, but also goes further to suggest that even Americans who are suspected of espousing views that undercut their country’s national security ought to be subjected to similar mistreatment, thus creating a narrative that conflates patriotism with unquestioning support for the government’s agenda. Hollywood’s anti-Muslim discourse post 9/11 was designed to shape public opinion and lay the groundwork for policies that encroach upon civil liberties. As a point of departure, this thesis draws on a litany of assertions Edward Said made regarding Orientalism, particularly his contention that when the United States emerged as a dominant superpower in the aftermath of World War II, supplanting the once mighty and far-flung French and British empires, it inherited a vast repertory of derogatory stereotypes and essentialist tropes about the Islamic Orient. The films and television series selected for this study abound with familiar Orientalist imagery about Muslims, which aim to lock the public in a perpetual state of patriotic hysteria and lend credence to an imperialist discursive tradition that has for long presented the Orient as a benighted savage that needs to be kept at bay at all costs.