Arab masses are cinematically portrayed as mindless followers of an Egyptian monster.

Evidence

Two early versions of The Mummy were produced in 1913 and 1914, and 85 years later, a new film, also titled The Mummy, was released that recreated these films in a campy but violent way. The mummy in this film is a terrifying monster, disfigured by being eaten alive thousands of years earlier by an army of scarab beetles. Equally frightening are the Arab masses that follow the monster’s every order, portrayed as “mindless, murderous zombies who chant the name Imhotep [the mummy].” Essentially, this is an army of mummies (very much like zombies) who follow the King Mummy. The film is filled with negative depictions of Muslims. According to one review, “If someone complains of a foul odor, you can be sure an Arab stooge is about to enter a scene.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 710

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates the specific mechanism of the ‘Arab stooge’ figure — the mass of undifferentiated followers versus the singular monster — central to the reader’s monster/mass dichotomy.