Daily Times

The social discourse depicts Muslims as something that is inherently bad or some external agent that still needs the approval to fit in the society.

Usually hitched with the stereotypes such as “terrorists” and “female oppression”, they are given the third category roles in Western entertainment; a role that is changed and developed throughout the plot with harsh criticism by the other ideologies.

It has been widely observed that Muslims are constantly being related to sexist, misogynist and stereotypical vocabulary. The prime motive of my work is to discuss these aspects in American award winning TV show ‘Elite’. How a specific vocabulary, certain beliefs and gestures are being associated with Muslims to make them appear as aliens not just ethnically, but also as a human.

Starting off with the mass emergence of LGBTQ in the American TV shows and series, Elite has experimented well with inculcating the gay concept in Muslim culture. However, the first point that arises is that whenever a Muslim being gay, is studied under the microscope, the lens of religion is used. On the contrary, when they talk about the concept of gay from their perspective, it is considered as a social construct that has nothing to do with the religion. In fact, they believe that being gay is a societal development and anybody thinking vice versa lives in the Stone-Age.

Elite highlights a middle-class Muslim family that runs a grocery shop in town. Mr. Yusef lives with his wife, a son and a daughter in the quarter behind the same shop. Omar is a drug dealer while Nadia is a bright student who has been transferred to a highly reputed private school on scholarship. Omar and Ander fell for each other during a drug deal. Omar is a character with unshaved facial and body hair to refer to the stereotype of “All Muslims should have Beards.” He is a submissive boy who fears his father more than anything else and hides the truth from his family; about him being gay. His unshaved legs against Ander’s that are shiny, bright and clean reflect the rustiness of Muslims.

Nadia is a dark complexioned girl who always wears a tight headscarf with abstract prints. The use of abstract prints seems to be a well-thought strategy to make her appear dull and left-out against the bold reds and girly pinks around her. Nadia is a bright student who is ready to shine bright like a diamond. She is the real candidate for the special trophy that will be awarded to the highest scorer at the end of the semester. Yet, her father becomes a major hurdle in her success. He believes that the school has changed Nadia adversely, and taught her wickedness, lying, sneaking out of the house and dating men in secret. He wants her only to study so that she can marry an educated spouse, unlike him as his words suggest:

Nadia is a dark complexioned girl who always wears a tight headscarf with abstract prints. The use of abstract prints seems to be a well-thought strategy to make her appear dull and left-out against the bold reds and girly pinks around her. Nadia is a bright student who is ready to shine bright like a diamond

“I want you home as soon as you get the grades.”

Ander’s parents find out about their son’s homosexuality, but they tend to remain calm and welcoming. Yet when Ander asks his mother either she would accept him being gay or not, she shrugs her son’s doubt and says:

“What kind of a person do you think I am? What you think of us is alarming!”

The way in which Ander’s mother forbids him suggests that she is declaring herself as a twenty-first-century woman who is tolerant, welcoming towards social reforms and liberal. However, my point is that where is the religion in that? Her artificial support for her son on being gay and comforting him awkwardly clearly says that some people in their society will not accept this notion. Still, there is no religious conversation. No Christian or Jew mentioned with the word gay. The conversation of Ander and his mother makes it very clear for us to understand how they are imprinting the rebellious marks on the minds of the Muslims. They are clearly experimenting with how associating Muslims with the Stone-Age might cause them to stand up and challenge this claim. When Ander’s mother asks him about his gay sweetheart, he says:

“His name is Omar. But we can’t be together because his father is from the Stone Age. He used to deal because he needs money to get out of that house. Help us, please. He’s not lucky enough to have parents like you.”

“Parents like you” is the legit hint of Western supremacy over Muslims. The point to ponder is that Western entertainment is using Muslims as a fancy contrast against their culture. However, the story doesn’t end here. Muslims are constantly being framed according to their religion. Which, I think no less than discrimination and thus needs to be stopped. They should learn to play culture versus culture and not their culture and society versus Muslim’s Religion. The Western Agenda is to never let Muslims blend in with their society and the only mean to do so is to highlight their religion. They know that this is the only thing that couldn’t be changed, and which would always stand tall as a basic hurdle between their societal constructs. Ander is gay and that is a social reform due to which his mother has no issue. However, Omar is gay and as that’s a taboo in Islam, Omar cannot be gay at any cost. Here, Omar is being framed according to his religion unlike Ander, who is being analysed according to his sexual urges, and ultimately his human instincts. Ander’s mother says it clear and loud:

“So many guys out there and you fall for a dealer. A dealer who is Muslim and gay.”

In the above line, two words are being associated with Muslims; dealer and gay. Much polite options could have been there in the script, yet these were the lines to humiliate the allegedly humiliating Muslims. Why? What’s wrong with a Muslim being a drug dealer if any other person in this world can? I have conflicts with Muslims being gay, yet again, anybody can be gay be it a Muslim or a Christian. If you have no problem in finding out that your son is gay, why do you have issues with the gay son of a Muslim woman?

While playing this “filthy religion game”, they forgot to justify the fact that Omar never got a respectable job despite his struggle to get one just because he was a Muslim. When he went to a restaurant to apply as a waiter, he was told that we cannot give a job to a Muslim. There must have been a justification for that. While all the characters were struggling, going through rebellion and evil phases, they grew morally and developed into a better person eventually, but the only people that weren’t prospering morally were apparently “The Muslim Family.”

Mr. Yusef is not happy with Nadia’s rebellious attitude and her fling with the heart-throb Guzman and thus forbids Nadia for further studies. On the request of Guzman, the Principal calls Mr Yusef and asks him to let Nadia continue her studies. Mr Yusef told her that Nadia is getting rebellious on which the Principal defends her by saying that all children get rebellious at this age. He gets this idea that the Principal and the studies are impregnating rebellion in his daughter, and thus he breaks into the class like an animal dragging Nadia out of it. The principal shouts these words from behind:

“Don’t grab her like that! I feel sorry for her and your son. To be a woman or a homosexual in your family must be hell! Poor Omar!”

Mr Yusef was constantly being framed as a humiliating person just because of his religious beliefs. He was portrayed as a man who would go to extremes for the imposition of the religion over his children, ultimately portraying Muslims as the extremists and conservatives. He dragged Nadia out of the class just because he thought that Nadia is forgetting her religious teachings. While nobody ever highlighted the fact that Mr Yusef already lost a daughter due to her rebellious and outgoing attitude which made him scared of losing Nadia too. I strongly believe that Mr Yusef’s problem with Nadia’s education had more to do with psychology than with religion.

Polo, the best friend of Guzman, assaulted a pregnant girl ultimately killing her. However, that was declared a mistake; an incident by his girlfriend, Carla. Christian, another classmate of Nadia constantly called her a terrorist and humiliated her in front of the whole school by saying words like “Please don’t explode” and “where have you vaulted the bomb” which appeared to be justifiable. On the other hand, Mr Yusef grabbing his own daughter out of the class is instantly labelled ‘humiliating’ as Nadia said:

“Dad dragged me out of the class in front of everyone. It’s so humiliating!”

Guzman’s girlfriend plotted a scheme against Nadia by sending Guzman after her. She asked Guzman to seduce Nadia and make a sex tape so that she might make a deal with Nadia; to score lesser marks than her or else she will leak the sex-tape to tarnish her image. Here, I don’t understand the point of this conspiracy. Aren’t Muslim girls living in the twentieth century? Muslim women here are being framed again. It is a common stereotype that Muslim women are not allowed to mingle with males and thus they fall prey to seduction more conveniently than Western women as they are stronger and used to males. To seduce and getting seduced is a human instinct, and making Muslims unfamiliar with it eliminates us from the category of humans.

Guzman, however, fell for Nadia and broke up with his girlfriend, but after all the problems that Mr Yusef caused, this fling was terminated. Guzman meets Nadia’s father on the graduation day and pleaded him to let Nadia study further at the school. He makes a vow with Mr Yusef that he will never talk to Nadia again and will stay away from her not because he got tired of her but because he knew that they had no future together.

“You know as well as I do that we have no future together.”

Now, we can clearly see the stereotype that Guzman is referring to; that Muslims don’t marry people out of their religion. First of all, if they were going to terminate Guzman and Nadia’s fling with this lamest excuse ever, why did they start it in the first place? Nadia is a female, an adult who could have changed her religion for Guzman. So how can he be so sure that they had no future together? This sentence again refers to the ideology that Muslims are conservative, non-accepting and radicals.

“Dad, maybe I haven’t changed. Maybe that old Nadia wasn’t me. She was a girl who tried to please her parents above all. Maybe I am different. I don’t know who I am yet, but I am going to find out. I hope you and mom can accept it and love me.”

American TV shows can do better by playing a fair game through equality in the portrayal of both sides. Psychology vs psychology, Religion vs Religion, Sociology vs Sociology, Society vs Society, Culture vs Culture. Mr Yusef’s psychological influences should not be judged with the social beliefs of Ander’s mother. Similarly, human instincts should not be contrasted with religion. These strategies not only disrupt the harmony in art but also create gaps and never-ending differences.

I believe that cross-examining culture, religion, society and personal beliefs can lead to false assumptions and obstruct the view of the clear picture. Muslim society is much different than their religious portrayal. Many behaviours and choices they make are related to their personal beliefs instead of religious backgrounds. American shows have to make the conflicts stand on the same ground!

The writer is a blogger, researcher, freelancer and a social worker. She’s currently a student of Bachelors at Air University and can be reached at kyxy220@gmail.com