A new study by the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg Inclusion Initiative revealed on Wednesday that most top TV shows have either erased Muslim characters or stereotyped them as extremists.
โMuslims make up 25% of the worldโs population yet were only 1.1% of characters in popular television series,โ said AI2โs Al-Baab Khan, lead author of the study, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
โNot only is this radical erasure an insult, it has the potential to create real-world injury for audiences, particularly Muslims who may be the victims of prejudice, discrimination and even violence.โ
๐ Read Also: Actor Riz Ahmed Urges Hollywood to Re-examine Muslim Imagery
The study titled, Erased or Extremists: The Stereotypical View of Muslims in Popular Episodic Series, was conducted with support from Riz Ahmed and his banner Left Handed Films, the Ford Foundation, and the Pillars Fund.
The report looked at the 200 top-rated television series from 2018 and 2019 that aired in the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand and revealed that Muslim actors are largely absent from pop culture TV shows.
Apart from the numbers deficit, the majority of the Muslim characters were depicted as adult Middle Eastern or North African [MENA] men, despite the fact that Muslims are the most racially and ethnically diverse religious group in the world.
These characters were also linked to violent acts and behavior. Over 30% of the 98 Muslim characters were perpetrators of violence, while nearly 40% were targets of such attacks. Less than one-third were portrayed as native English speakers, underscoring depictions of Muslims as โforeigners.โ
โFor Muslims, this sends a message that they donโt belong or donโt matter,โ said Riz Ahmed of the production company Left Handed Films, in a statement. โFor other people, we risk normalizing fear, bigotry and stigmatization against Muslims.โ
Women Too
The study also showed that Muslim women were often depicted as โfearful and submissive to their male counterparts.โ
โNetworks and streaming services need to embrace their responsibility to ensure Muslims of all backgrounds see themselves reflected in our favorite TV shows,โ said Ahmed.
โAnd they would be wise to embrace this gigantic opportunity to reach and connect with an underserved global audience โ not just as part of a passing diversity fad but as a decisive shift toward inclusive story-telling.โ
Earlier in June 2021, Riz Ahmed launched a new initiative to combat Hollywoodโs stereotypical and โtoxicโ portrayal of Muslim community, saying โThe Islamophobia industry is one that measures its cost in blood.โ
His initiative came alongside the release of The Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion, co-published by his production company Left Handed Films with the Pillars Fund, and a research study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, titled Missing & Maligned: The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movies.
USCโs researchers examined 200 popular films from the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand from 2017 to 2019. They found that only six of them had a Muslim in a co-leading role, and only one of those was female. Of the nearly 9,000 speaking parts, fewer than two percent were Muslim. And there none in animated movies.
