Early film monsters embodied the Arab as degenerate criminal and deformed troll

Evidence

The violent Arab rapist-murderer is a very different character from the Muslim monster, of course, yet all of these stereotypes inform the way in which Muslim men are viewed. Other characters in these films aid the stereotype. In Son of the Sheik, two characters cross over to the monstrous—Ghabah the Moor and an unnamed Arab dwarf. Ghabah the Moor is a hideous and sinister criminal whose “crimes outnumber the sands.” He and the dwarf take great pleasure in threatening to rape Yasmin, as well as in torturing Ahmed by beating him and burning his feet. Ghabah and the dwarf behave like monsters; Ghabah grimaces and makes faces at the camera and the dwarf prances around like a ghoulish troll. These are the authentic Muslim monsters of the first Sheik film. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 615

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives a concrete visual template for the Muslim monster figure in cinema: the Moor and the dwarf who grimace and prance.