Arab Stereotypes Essay

The term Arab is used to label an individual from the Middle East. Regardless of the fact that all these people do not come from the same background and have diverse cultures, principles, and religions, they are still branded with one single word, “Arabs”. The term reduces the originality each of the countries has, that distinguishes it from the other countries and opens it to stereotypes. A stereotype is a creation of a subjective opinion or view. An individual will take the actions and behavior of one person and assume that all the people belonging to that group, it can be an ethnic, religious or social group that behave in the same manner. Stereotypes are not born but formed and such opinions are much made by the media. Nowadays, un-welcomed stereotypes about the Arabs have been made. The media has often projected Arabs in a negative way. They have been presented as terrorists, extremist and dishonest people that creates a distorted and unrealistic image in people’s minds.
A child today is borne to watch on an average of over 7 hours of television a

These big dangerous terms have always been interlinked with the Arabs. A false perception created and still being enforced by all forms of the media. Incident such as the 9/11 has worsen the attitudes people have towards the Arabs. An unfortunate occurrence due to a group of people have caused an entire race to be labeled as “terrorist”. It has gone to an extreme where Arabs or Muslims traveling to the West has become difficult. A person with a long beard, or with a name such as Abdullah would be interrogated at security checks in foreign countries aggressively. Humiliating the person in front 1000s of people. This has furthermore been triggered by the media by unnecessary exaggeration and irrelevant facts and made matters worse. An incident which still no one is sure about who is responsible should not be blamed on the one entire nation and be given a harsh tittle such as the