TV dramas normalized acceptance of real torture of Arabs and Muslims

Evidence

Like other colonial spaces examined in this study, Abu Ghraib displays desires about others, as well as revealing the fantasies of torture that ran riot after September 11. The popularity of torture in television and film has gone largely unnoticed by scholars, but as Ziauddin Sardar has written, “There is a seamless connection between what happens in American society, the way society is represented by Hollywood, and the torture meted out by US soldiers abroad. In movies, torture is an everyday activity.” Abu Ghraib also perpetuates the idea that, for some, torturing Muslims is an acceptable pastime, a hobby for good old boys, what Rush Limbaugh described as, “a good time… sort of like hazing, a fraternity prank. Sort of like that kind of fun.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 755 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Fictional TV portrayals of Islam shaped actual US and UK counterterrorism programs.; Liberal multicultural TV can legitimate the security state as much as overtly racist shows; The TV show 24 shifted public opinion to tolerate torturing Arabs and Muslims (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Popular torture imagery in American media normalized real torture of Muslims abroad. #corroborates (0.95) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 755