Representing Islam : a comparative study of the representation of "Islam" in western cinema Vs. arab cinema

Abstract

Representations of the Middle East and its people have been a large focus of debate for decades in fields from politics to the social sciences. Edward Said’s 1979 book on the theory of Orientalism further stirred discussions of the Arab world. This thesis aims to highlight portrayals of Islam and Muslims specifically in the medium of cinema. Furthermore, the following will concentrate how Islam is represented in the film ‘The Kingdom’ from Western cinema compared to the film ‘Al-Akhar’ (‘The Other’) from Arab cinema using Orientalist theory. The researched looked at the question of how the religion was portrayed and whether differentiations were made between the violent sect and the moderate sect of Islam. The methods conducted in the analysis of the narrative structure of the films and their content centered on the semiotic approach. Findings revealed that there were many commonalities in the illustrations of the faith and its followers as well as a few differences. Ultimately, the conclusions drawn demonstrated perhaps a more well-rounded representations of Islam in the film from Western cinema than in the film from Arab cinema.