Amidst much glitz and glamor, the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony was deemed a success by all those who attended and followed it. According to some analysts, however, the real winner of the coveted Oscars was Islamophobia, since two television serials that were roughly based on troubles between the West and the Islamic world dominated proceedings on the big night.
Unarguably the most controversial movie at the Academy Awards was Ben Affleck’s Argo, a political thriller about a covert CIA operation that aimed to free six Americans from Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The problem that most Iranian people, and more recently the Iranian government have with Argo is that it shows the vast majority of Iranian people as angry, bigoted and fanatical. In order to avoid portraying such a stereotype, Affleck ensured the movie started out by mentioning that the CIA contributed in overthrowing popular democratically-elected leader Mohammed Mossadegh and replacing him with a US-backed tyrant, the Shah of Iran. Although this might seem like justification on part of the Iranian people for the anti-Americanism portrayed throughout the film, critics argue that most Iranians had nothing against innocent American people, but were just opposed to the Shah of Iran being granted asylum in the United States. They argue that while the human side of all the American citizens were adequately represented in the movie, the same could not be said about a single Iranian character.
Michelle Obama was given the opportunity to announce the winner of the Best Picture Award. In what many termed as a subtle political statement, she made the announcement through video link, with a number of fully-uniformed American military personnel behind her. The award came at a time when US-led economic sanctions in Iran had caused a shortage of medicines in the isolated country. In an interesting turn of events, the Iranian government has decided to sue Hollywood companies who produce films that contain “anti-Iran propaganda”. According to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in Iran, Argo is filled with historical discrepancies and misrepresentations about Iran and its people.
Argo was not the only hit that showed hints of Islamophobia. Showtime’s new drama, Homeland, also suggested that American audiences love to watch content that shows conflict between the Islamic world and America. Based on the relationship between a female CIA agent and a former American prisoner of war who is suspected of being linked to Islamic terrorist networks, the show has no limits in portraying the almost unbelievably diabolical schemes that the enemies of America are willing to execute. The show’s writers seem to have no end to coming up with different terrorist characters, all of which have only one thing in common – they are Arab.
Zero Dark Thirty, nominated for an impressive five Oscars, also features a female CIA agent, whose ultimate mission is to capture Osama Bin Laden. Not only does it feature hordes of angry Muslims expressing their hatred for America, but also an endless supply of Muslim terrorists waiting to kill any person they believe to be American. The popularity of Islam in mainstream Hollywood in the post-9/11 era is not merely a coincidence. More and more people want to learn more about Islam and Muslims in America, and Hollywood is subtly leading Americans to believe only one side of the picture.
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