When Pictures Changed Wars
In 1972, Nick Ut’s Pulitzer-winning photograph of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm strike altered the course of American history. It was not a general’s order or a battlefield victory that shifted public sentiment—it was an image. That moment revealed a truth now weaponized by states and industries alike: visual stories shape perception faster than facts ever could.
Hollywood After Vietnam: Redeeming the Nation
As America wrestled with the trauma and guilt of Vietnam, its cinema offered comfort. First Blood (1982) and Platoon (1986) recast American soldiers—not as baby-killers—but as broken men, victims of misguided wars. Hollywood was not cleaning the bloodstains; it was bandaging national pride.
With the Cold War heating up, the Soviet Union stepped in as the perfect villain. Red Dawn (1984), Rocky IV (1985), and others built a cinematic world where Russians were the ever-looming threat. These were not just action films—they were reflections of U.S. policy and public fear. When the Berlin Wall fell, a new enemy was needed.
Source: Modern Diplomacy
The Post-9/11 Script: Islam as the Antagonist
Enter the Muslim terrorists. After 9/11, Hollywood pivoted sharply. Films like The Siege (1998) foreshadowed the shift, but post-2001 productions like Zero Dark Thirty and shows like 24 cemented the stereotype: Muslims were no longer neighbors—they were ticking time bombs.
Jack Shaheen’s Reel Bad Arabs documented over 900 Hollywood films that portrayed Arabs or Muslims negatively, specifically finding that 936 out of 1,000 films produced between 1896 and 2000 depicted negative portrayals. These were not anomalies. They were cultural reinforcements of U.S. foreign policy, mirroring real wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with imaginary wars on screen. The result? A generation groomed to fear turbans and mosques, considering Islamophobia the norm.
Bollywood’s Nationalist Turn
Meanwhile, Bollywood—once a tapestry of pluralism—took a sharp turn under the weight of rising Hindu nationalism. In the Modi era, films like The Kashmir Files (2022) and The Kerala Story (2023) gained traction not just for their storytelling, but for their alignment with political agendas.
The Kashmir Files grossed INR-340 crore globally, not despite its controversial content but because of it. The film turned complex historical tragedies into simplified tales of Muslim villainy. The propagandous movie, Kerala Story, similarly, propagated the myth of mass Islamic conversions—debunked by independent fact-checkers, but still embraced by large audiences.
Stars like Shah Rukh Khan face online harassment and calls to “go to Pakistan”. Journalists and critics of these films are labeled “anti-national.” Dissent in Indian cinema is not silenced by censors—but by mobs, trolls, and advertisers.
The Algorithmic Amplifier
Cinema does not operate in a vacuum. WhatsApp forwards, YouTube thumbnails, and X (formerly Twitter) hashtags all act as digital megaphones. In Pakistan alone, there were approximately 71.70 million social media users in 2024, accounting for 29.5% of the total population. A concerning trend shows that approximately 75% of news links shared on platforms like Facebook are reposted without users ever reading the content. This echo chamber ensures that harmful tropes persist long after the last reel ends. The study referred here, by University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, revealed alarming statistics concerning Facebook and dissemination of fake news-links.
Source: UFL
Who Rewrites the Script?
If cinema has the power to frame enemies, it also holds the potential to reshape narratives. But who leads that charge?
Muslim communities and countries must go beyond outrage and boycott. It’s time for investment in:
- Media production: Fund independent filmmakers, studios, and documentaries that challenge stereotypes and offer nuanced stories.
- Cultural diplomacy: Launch festivals, film exchanges, and scholarships to showcase Muslim diversity and creativity.
- Education & Literacy: Promote media literacy within Muslim populations to critically engage with harmful content rather than react emotionally.
- Strategic partnerships: Collaborate with global allies—progressives, human rights groups, and artists—to build coalitions against hate-driven content.
Pakistan, in particular, must move from reactive statements to proactive storytelling. Support for screenwriters, digital creators, and critical thinkers should become a national priority, not an afterthought. Film, after all, is not just art—it is infrastructure for the national narrative.
The Power of the Lens
Hollywood and Bollywood may have framed Muslims as threats—but lenses can shift. Cameras, after all, do not have ideologies. They follow the stories we choose to tell.
It’s time we tell better ones.
