The Good And Bad Of Muslim Arabs
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The Good and Bad of Muslim’s and Arabs
Art, culture, literature, and the study of land is what come to my mind when I hear the term Orientalism. In my research I found Orientalism defined as the character or characteristics of oriental people; or a peculiarity or idiosyncrasy of oriental people, basically stating a group of Orientals that behave, think and have a feeling that is peculiar, odd or unusual. Orientalism refers to the imitations or depictions of aspects in Eastern cultures. The depiction is given by artists, designers, but most of all writers in the West. The study of Orientalism by far is mostly focused on Arab Islam’s and the Middle East. In its own way Orientalism Examines and divides the East and West. I believe Orientalism is how we perceive some kind of other orients. I didn’t think that the whole term Orientalism was belonging just to the Middle East But it mainly does. I don’t believe there is too much controversy over the term Orientalism. I think not everybody knows what it means or who and what the term refers too. I don’t believe Orientalism should focus and remain on just the study of the West but should be used as the study in all other countries. It’s a term that we can all use in a different way. The East could look at us and call the study of our culture Orientalism. No matter where we’re from were all Orientals in someone’s eyes.
There was much controversy on the opening song of Disney’s 1992 Aladdin. The name of the opening refers to the name of the original book; “Arabian Nights” This song was the source of considerable controversy in the Arab world upon the films original release. It was so controversial because the songs opening lyrics said “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face.” Many Arabs were outraged on the fact that the film was saying, if you came to their land and they didn’t like how you looked they would brutally cut off your ear. In all reality to me it’s just a cartoon and nothing more. It doesn’t bother me that those words were used. I believe it’s kind of humorous “Besides Aladdin was made for children.” I’m sure none of the children understood and put together those lyrics, but many Arab adults did. When the movie was shown in theaters many were outraged with how Disney had portrayed the Arab world to be. This is where Dr. Shaheen came in. Shaheen was extremely devoted to examining the stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims in the Hollywood scene. Shaheen has spent years of studying how Hollywood vilifies Arabs and Muslims. He devoted much time and effort into helping others that were much offended by the harsh lyrics of Aladdin by pushing hard for the opening lyrics to be changed. Eventually the lyrics were changed too; “Where the flat is immense and the heat is intense.” Every single home video and DVD has those lyrics instead of the ones from the theater. To me that’s a great feat. In order to do something so large such as change the lyrics to a soundtrack in a movie while that movie is still in theater in a huge accomplishment. Shaheen had tons of motivation and drive throughout the battle to change the lyrics.
When I looked up the term “Arab” I found that it was described as a member of people