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Author: Catbert

Feb 11th 2012 at 4:10:31 AM

^^"non-Muslim Arab":  All sorts of times, actually.  The first thing that comes to mind is pretty much every time an Afghan, Pakistani, Turk, Iranian, Nation of Islam style African-American Muslim, or "Moor" is portrayed in fiction.  These groups are not all that rare in fiction.  You really want me to try to list every occurring of one of these groups in fiction as "aversions"?

The thing is, this is a RealLife example of a common ignorance, however determining what examples actually count is a pain in a half.  How are we supposed to tell the difference between a character is included as a Muslim and Arab soley because of the ignorance of the author vs. one that was included by an author that is fully aware of the diversity of Muslim cultural/ethnic groups but happened to pick Arabs because that is the group that makes the most sense to use for the story he wants to tell?

It seems to me that the only time we can be certain that this is stereotype is being referenced is when you have a character making a statementlike what is in randomsurfer's example.  Furthermore, that isn't really a straight example of the use of such a trope.  It is an example of the trope being subverted or possibly even averted entirely.

"a Turkish or Iranian character speaking Arabic, wearing stereotypical Arab robes"

Considering the emphasis that Muslims put on the ability to read the Koran in the original language, the proximity of many non-Arab Muslim nations to Arabian nations, and the historic importance of Arabic as a lingua franca in many parts of the world, finding educated non-Muslims that have at least some knowledge of Arabic probably isn't all that hard.

Also, some traditional Arab clothing can have a close resemblance to traditional clothing in various non-Arabian Muslim cultures.

AllJewsAreAshkenazi is in the Trope Repair Shop.  I'm not sure that is a good model.