I can’t even think of a title for this
LebJournal
So tonight I come home and turn on my television to get my fix of Lebanese T.V. – it is afterall all I have here in Canada to enjoy after a long day at school and my part-time job.
I turn on a channel that I usually enjoy watching – LBC- and it has this Moroccan T.V. movie, it seemed. It was interesting because I had seen the commercial for it before and never understood the point of it. So I ask my mom and she says: “Oh, it’s just a movie about issues in the Arab world, it’s actually good- teaching people lessons.” And so I join her to see what this movie is all about.
The story revolves around two young Moroccan girls with many family problems whom eventually turn to their faith- Islam. It was weird, because I thought that’s odd- this movie is too Islamic for LBC which is christian owned as we all know and would technically have no interest in such a movie. Slowly, I put the pieces together. The movie turns out to be about these young women eventually becoming terrorists to save the world from the evil of wrongdoers.
I didn’t get angry enough to change the channel but I was definitely upset to see this stereotype about Muslims being reinforced on a Lebanese channel. To add to this mess, Eid is only two days away, a time when Muslims all around are looking for something to put them in Eid spirit, which is what I wanted most- since Eid here is NOTHING like in Lebanon. Instead, I got a movie about terrorism. Thanks.
It’s funny because when I first saw the movie, though it was weird, I took the intentions of channel execs as being supportive to fellow Muslims and helping them get into Eid spirit. They really left me hanging.
What’s worse is that this isn’t the first time such a movie is played on an Arab channel- every channel and country in the “Arab” world has explored this issue of Islamic extremism. So my question here is: why aren’t we critical of such movies being played on our T.V. screens, why don’t we take action to prevent such movies from being a real part of popular media just like we would for the soccer game in Egypt and Algeria, or Melhem Zain when he didn’t win Super Star, or to support a politician. To me, this is worse than anything else. This requires Arab uproar. And I’m not critical because I think Islamic extremism doesn’t exist or that terrorism stemming from Jihadist beliefs don’t exist- my criticism stems from the fact that I no longer see an Islamic movie or T.V. series aimed to teach people in general the behavior, attitude and morality of most Muslims, if not close to all.
Being in university here in Canada, I currently study Sociology and W omen’s Studies as majors. In W omen’s Studies, we study different issues regarding both women and men. Many of my courses are cross-listed with Peace Studies- in other words we study feminism and peace/war discourse in one class. My current class, we have discussed many issues and while my class is mostly Canadians that were born and raised here and in fact one is Jewish and from Israel. Every single person in the room with me once they hear about this movie would be very much critical of this movie and how it has lead to a certain culture in the Arab world. We would be very critical of how we actually BELIEVE that this is a large problem in our Arab world- so large that we have t.v. series to another and went from movie to another discussing this “large” problem.
To me, it’s funny but not funny enough to make laugh rather to make cry because our world has reached a point so low that we longer can take actions for ourselves and to go against the stereotypes the world has built against us.
When people ask me about Beirut or any other Lebanese- many (including myself at times) will mention the lively party scene, the openness and freshness of Beirut. Many (though in this case not me) would NOT mention our history, our artifacts, our mosques and churches, our villages where real people (Muslims and non-Muslims alike) live. Why not let strangers enter our world to truly explore and understand us. Why not start taking action in our own media to beat the stereotypes using positive and healthy images. Why not beat the American propaganda.
I didn’t write this to attack LBC, the speaker or anyone mentioned in the article, rather they should be very concerned based on what they have been taught. It would be nice to break the stereotypes, because though not every Arab world is not Beirut, they are definitely not all monsters waiting to attack.
SO shame ..
And on a happier note, Happy Eid Al-Adha all and I hope by next Eid- we will all start to take first steps in changing ourselves and our world in order to better improve our world.
The Journal does not hold responsibility of the published opinion which strongly reflects the writer’s point of view.
Also to add to this – I think it really speaks to our religious divide in Lebanon. In other words, we don’t show respect to one another when it comes down to religion. To ever reach a point where we can be independent and far from religious conflict we need to stop using such material to instingate the other. Though American media uses a lot of aggression against Muslims it is never as obvious as the way arabs present it. Yes, there is freedom in our media and there should be but not at the cost of offending a whole group of people in Lebanon and in the arab world- when we realize that LBC specifically much like MBC, Abu Dhabi, etc. are all widely viewed channels that are supposed to represent the population.