Collective Identity:Team America Representations

By Matt Beedie

Team America – World Police

• Team America (2004, Trey Parker) is a film based around the ethos of America and how they are the ‘best’.

• The film is highly controversial because of it stereotypical (archetypal) representations of different minorities including Arabs, Koreans and the French.

• However, the use of puppets throughout the narrative allow Parker to get away with most of the comments made about these minorities.

Muslim representations in Team America #1

• Throughout the narrative Muslims, or people from Saudi Arabia, do not get a positive representation.

• Even from the beginning of the film, Team America attempt to kill them when they try to set off a bomb in France.

• The other characters treat them like outcasts or as some sort of threat no matter what they have done.

• There is an obvious underlying feeling that there is a grudge against all Saudi Arabians in the film.

Muslim representations in Team America #2

• The audience are instantly provoked into having a negative reading on the Muslim representatives in the film.

• The audience seem at ease when watching a Muslim or Arabic person get killed and laugh at the dramatic fashion in which they die.

• There is an obvious lack or emotion when someone of Arabic ethnicity dies in the film.

Muslim representations in Team America #3

• Society seems to accept the killing of Arabic or Muslim people in the film as the use of puppets adds humour to event.

• The fact that there are no humans used in the film also allows Parker to almost get away with some of the comments, images and insinuations that he is connoting on the screen.

• The mixed reactions to this film show that society is very diverse in its views on religion and the acceptance or un-acceptance of some forms of lifestyle.

• However, it does focus on America’s views in the film on Muslim people and as it is a film the views are constructed so may not be fully true.

Other films in 2004

• Team America – World Police (Trey Parker)

• Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore) (Doc)

• The Day After Tomorrow (Roland Emmerich)

• I Robot (Alex Proyas)• Voices of Iraq (People of

Iraq [Martin Kunert unaccredited])

History of Muslims and the US• 2000: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

begin the Al-Aqsa Intifada, prompted by Ariel Sharon's visit to a disputed religious site holy to both Jews and Muslims. President Hafez al-Assad of Syria dies of a heart attack. His son Bashar al-Assad is elected President by Syria's Majlis Al Shaa'b (Parliament). Earthquake in Gujarat, India at Richter scale of 7.8, 25,000 people died

• 2001: Members of Al Qaeda, a Jihadi organization, attack the United States. Hijacked commercial airliners are flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building on September 11, 2001, killing upwards of three thousand. The United States subsequently declares a War on terror and invades Afghanistan, whose Taliban regime had given refuge to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The Taliban are ousted from power, though the fate of bin Laden is unknown as of 2008.

• 2002: The riots between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat, India. More than 5000 reported killed, most of them Muslims.

• 2003: The United States leads the invasion of Iraq, searching for "weapons of mass destruction", starting the second Iraq War. Shirin Ebadi becomes the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in promoting human rights.

History of Muslims and the US/UK• 2004: A Jihadi group claims responsibility for bombings in

Madrid's commuter railway and several trains. The Jihad attack killed 191, and wounded 1,460 others. Nevertheless the Islamists' claim, latest unveilings suggest that perhaps the role of Islamic extremists was less capital than it has been officially presented. The second largest earthquake ever recorded occurs in the Indian Ocean triggering the Asian Tsunami. Indonesia suffers the heaviest damage with 167,736 dead, 37,063 missing and 500,000+ displaced.

• 2005: A radical Muslim group claims responsibility for bombings in the London Underground. The attack kills 52, and wounds over 700 others. Bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt kill at least 83 and wound hundreds. Saudi Arabia's King Fahd dies. Fahd's brother Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, who had assumed de facto leadership of the country after King Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke in 1994, is declared king. A powerful, 7.6-magnitude earthquake hits Pakistan administered Kashmir, killing upwards of 73,000 people. Israel removed Jewish settlers and military personnel from the Gaza Strip in August 2005.

• 2006: Israel attempts to invade Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah paramilitary forces, but fails. Death of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by hanging for crimes against humanity. Muhammad Yunus wins Nobel Peace Prize for successful application of microcredit schemes to poor entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.

• 2007:Ethiopian forces invade Somalia and routed Islamic Courts from Mogadishu.

• 2008: Kosovo becomes independent and immediately recognised by the USA and the EU.

Politics in Saudi Arabia #1• The history of Saudi Arabia is entwined - as

much as its name is - with the fate and fortunes of the House of Saud, which traces its origins back to the 18th century.

• By the middle of that century the clan had become members of the Wahhabi sect - in those days a militantly puritanical branch of Sunni Islam that denounced some other Muslim sects as apostates.

• Wahhabism was the catalyst for the emergence of the Saud dynasty as a powerful military force in the Arabian peninsula and was the foundation on which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was eventually unified and built.

• Today, Wahhabism is practised with less rigour than in the 18th and 19th centuries. Nevertheless, in modern-day Saudi Arabia, Wahhabi doctrine ensures that life in the kingdom is far more constrained than in other Arab states.

• Not only is alcohol strictly forbidden, but shops are required to close for the five-times-daily prayers, women are not allowed to drive vehicles or play an active part in public life, cinemas are banned and public worship of any religion other than Islam is proscribed.

Politics in Saudi Arabia #2

• One of the cabinet's roles is to enact legislation. Draft laws first require the approval of the Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Council).

• This body was established, initially with 60 members appointed by the king, in 1992. The membership was increased to 90 appointees in 1997 and to 120 in 2001. The duration of each council is four years.

• Abdullah 2005 to present As well as approving proposed legislation, the Shura Council has the power to summon and question government ministers.

• In March 2004, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prince Sultan - now crown prince - said there would not be elections for the Shura Council in the foreseeable future, but he did not rule out the possibility at some point in the future.

• While the king and senior princes maintain the ancient Arabian tradition of the majlis - a form of open assembly - in their palaces, to give ordinary citizens the right to present petitions or air grievances, popular political participation has always been restricted and parties are banned.

• In October 2003, under pressure from home and abroad, the government announced plans to set up municipal elections with half the seats up for election.

• The plan was given a cautious welcome by the public, but critics of the regime saw it as merely a token gesture.

Politics in Saudi Arabia #3

• Much of the speculation in the Western media about uncertainty surrounding the succession in Saudi Arabia is either exaggerated or wide of the mark.

• In the short term, at least, the picture is clear. Crown Prince Abdullah will be the next king of Saudi of Arabia, and the current Defence Minister, Prince Sultan, will succeed him. After that, the succession is less certain.

• All the sons of King Abdul Aziz are of a considerable age. Both Crown Prince Abdullah and Prince Sultan are in their 70s. At some point, the issue of handing power to the second generation will have to be faced - although as yet this is not under discussion.

• While the kingdom faces some difficult choices in the years ahead, talk of the collapse of the House of Saud is unrealistic, at least in the foreseeable future. For a start, it is a huge structure, with an estimated 7,000 princes, some in very influential positions.

• While differences exist over such issues as relations with the West, and political and economic liberalisation, the family is united in its desire to keep control of the kingdom.

• Furthermore, it would be wrong to overlook the fact that the family has many loyal supporters within the kingdom.

Politics in Saudi Arabia #4• The aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks and the US-

led invasion of Iraq changed the political climate in the Gulf region as a whole.

• Saudi Arabia, in particular, came in for harsh criticism from the US for allowing a milieu to develop in the kingdom in which the perpetrators of the bombings could have lived unchecked and money could be channelled to militant Islamic groups. American pressure on the Saudi government to crack down on Islamic charities, change the school curriculum and liberalise and democratise political life increased.

• Khobar siege, May 2004: Militants have repeatedly targeted foreignersAngered by what was perceived as unwarranted interference in domestic matters, the Saudi leadership was reluctant to take action. But a series of suicide bomb attacks inside the kingdom appeared to convince the government that action should be taken on two fronts, with a crackdown on Islamist militants and the first tentative introduction of reforms.

• The initiative for the kingdom's nascent reform process has come from Crown Prince Abdullah. He has chaired a series of national dialogue meetings, attended by 60 men and women - clergy, academics and leading opinion-formers in society.

• The crown prince has stressed in public - for the benefit of opponents inside the royal family as much as those outside - that the kingdom has no choice but to proceed with the dialogue and introduce changes in its political and social life.

• Change is likely to be slow. Compared with all other Arab states, Saudi Arabia is inherently conservative. Crown Prince Abdullah knows that he will be unable to introduce overnight reforms to the political system, school curricula or other sensitive areas. Instead, he is using these preliminary stages of the debate to test the water and see how far he can push things.

Theorists n that #1• Habiba Noor Institute of Education• ‘British Muslim frustration with the

media is well researched and documented; their main concern is how news discourses on Islam influence opinions of majority audiences. This article argues that production-based audience research methods give insight into how minority audiences see themselves in relation to the majority and how groups negotiate a sense of belonging through media discourses. The study used a technique whereby Muslim teenagers in London and New York were asked to produce a two-minute news story on the 'War on Terror' that combined images from a digital archive with an accompanying voiceover. The article analyses how the participants position themselves as representatives of a global Muslim community-in-suffering to imagined mainstream audiences in the UK and US’

Theorists n that #2• Wendy Earle • ‘For example, in the discussions about

the young bombers who blew up parts of the London transport system in July 2005, concerns were expressed about young people’s identity with extremist Muslim clerics, raising questions about how to counteract their presumed sense of social exclusion from mainstream society. Cultural organisations such as museums and galleries are being called upon to play a role in addressing this problem.’

• Pretending that youth apathy doesn’t exist The authorities’ attempts to reinvent and ‘remix’ citizenship ignore the real problem.

• http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/169/

Theorists n that #3• Culture shock refers to the anxiety

and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown cultural or social environment after leaving everything familiar behind and they have to find their way in a new culture that has a different way of life and a different mindset such as in a foreign country. It grows out of the difficulties in assimilating the new culture, causing difficulty in knowing what is appropriate and what is not. This is often combined with a dislike for or even disgust (moral or aesthetical) with certain aspects of the new or different culture.

Theorists n that #4• Mark Glaser, • ‘The idea behind citizen journalism is

that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. For example, you might write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube.’

Theorists n that #5• The Bennett scale, also called the DMIS (for Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity), was developed by Dr.

Milton Bennett. The framework describes the different ways in which people can react to cultural differences and the degree to which they have adapted to them.

• DMIS uses six stages to scale the level of cultural adaptation, where it should be the goal to reach the highest stage. The first three stages are ethnocentric as one sees his own culture as central to reality. Moving up the scale the individual develops a more and more ethnorelative point of view, meaning that you experience your own culture as in the context to other cultures. At the next stage these ethnocentric views are replaced by ethnorelative views.

The ethnocentric stages of the Bennett scale are• Denial

– Denial one is simply not able to understand cultural differences. Indicators are benign stereotyping and superficial statements of tolerance. This stage is sometimes accompanied by attribution of deficiency in intelligence or personality to culturally deviant behaviour.

• Defence – One notices cultural differences, but sees these differences as negative since the evaluation process is done by

comparison with the own, perceived as the right, culture. The larger the difference the worse the other culture and the better one's own culture.

• Minimization – The stage where superficial cultural differences are recognized and accepted is called Minimization. Minimization

because differences are minimized by focusing on similarities between ones own and the other culture due to an ethnocentric point of view.

• The ethnorelative stages are• Acceptance

– Acceptance is achieved when cultural differences are not only recognized but also accepted as an alternative solution of how to organize human existence.

• Adaptation – The development of communication skills that enable intercultural communication in order to understand and be

understood across cultural boundaries qualifies for the adaptation stage called Adaptation. • Integration

– Integration, is reached when one managed the internalization of bi- or multicultural frames of reference. The one integrated in another culture is seeing one's self as in process. This stage is not necessarily better than Adaptation.