Stereotypes: “One source of readily-available information about the causes of behaviors

or outcomes is cultural stereotypes” (Reyna, 2008, p. 441). For decades, American society has

used stereotypes of various racial groups to determine its members’ ability, level of intelligence,

and behaviors. The stereotypes that Asians are good at math or science, Caucasians have good

credit, and African Americans are lazy or unintelligent not only describe how society feels about

these different ethnic groups but can also determine their success in society. Immigrant students

are usually characterized into a specific ethnic group based on the stereotypes of their physical

appearance, academic achievement, and/or socioeconomic status. Studies have proven that many

immigrant students, stereotyped as a member of a minority group, are given less opportunities to

succeed academically. “Alternatively or in addition they are directed into non-academic courses

or subject clusters within schools (de facto tracking), which reinforces or reduces their already

weaker performance” (Marks, 2010, p. 134).

Perceptions of similarity: “In this age of wide migration waves all over the world, when

schools’ populations become more diverse, educators often make policies regarding groups of

immigrant students (from the same origin) with unique needs” (Shpaizman & Kogut, 2010, p.

425). Perceptions of similarity are inclined to have considerable effects on the academic

achievement of immigrant students. Perceptions of similarity characteristics educators place on

immigrant students can be either positive or negative. Research has shown that perceptions of

similarity can be the reason why educators value immigrant students’ well-being and interests.

However, mistaken perceptions of similarity sometimes lead educators to misunderstand the

needs of immigrant students and enforce strategies that do not contribute to, or hinder academic

performance and achievement (Shpaizman & Kogut, 2010).

Cultural Identity: Immigrant students’ struggle in maintaining their native cultural

identity while also adapting to the culture of a new country leaves them vulnerable to risks.
Reynaga-Abiko (2012) agreed with studies proving assimilation caused immigrants to be “less

healthy and well-adjusted.” Whereas Oyserman (2008) claim immigrants who maintain a strong

native cultural identity, and utterly reject the culture of the society in which they live, are

susceptible to detachment and disinterest within school environments.

“Stereotypes about the child’s cultural group, their own feelings about assimilation,

acculturative stress from parents, and their success at developing comfortable bi-cultural

identities can all contribute to their attitudes about school and their aspirations for higher

education” (Urdan & Munoz, 2011, p. 250). Immigrant students either believe or challenge the

cultural identity society has forced upon them through stereotypes or perceptions of similarity.

Either way, immigrant students begin to question their own identity as it relates to their beliefs

10

and values. This is likely to deter academic performance and achievement as the stress from the

conflict of integrating two cultures can cause a lack of motivation and self-efficacy.

Immigrant students are at risk to stereotypes, perceptions of similarity, and decrepit

development of cultural identity when migrating to a new country. These threats can hinder

immigrant students’ academic opportunities, cause educators to misunderstand their needs, and

sever them from engagement or interest in academic performance and achievement. In order to

give immigrant students a fighting chance, society must adopt the convictions of

multiculturalism which accommodates diversity. Adopting multiculturalism is not an easy feat.

James A. Banks, a multicultural theorist, emphasizes that a person must first have a concrete

self-identity before the teachings of multiculturalism will be accepted (Bennett, 2006).

African-American culture

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African-American culture, also known as Black American culture, refers to the contributions of African
Americans to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from mainstream American
culture. The distinct identity of African-American culture is rooted in the historical experience of the
African-American people, including the Middle Passage. The culture is both distinct and enormously
influential on American and global worldwide culture as a whole.

African-American culture is rooted in the blend between the cultures of West and Central Africa and the
Anglo-Celtic culture that has influenced and modified its development in the American South.
Understanding its identity within the culture of the United States it is, in the anthropological sense,
conscious of its origins as largely a blend of West and Central African cultures. Although slavery greatly
restricted the ability of African Americans to practice their original cultural traditions, many practices,
values and beliefs survived, and over time have modified and/or blended with European cultures and
other cultures such as that of Native Americans. African-American identity was established during the
slavery period, producing a dynamic culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on
American culture as a whole, as well as that of the broader world.[1]

Elaborate rituals and ceremonies were a significant part of African-Americans' ancestral culture. Many
West African societies traditionally believed that spirits dwelled in their surrounding nature. From this
disposition, they treated their environment with mindful care. They also generally believed that a
spiritual life source existed after death, and that ancestors in this spiritual realm could then mediate
between the supreme creator and the living. Honor and prayer was displayed to these "ancient ones",
the spirit of those past. West Africans also believed in spiritual possession.[2]

In the beginning of the 18th century, Christianity began to spread across North Africa; this shift in
religion began displacing traditional African spiritual practices. The enslaved Africans brought this
complex religious dynamic within their culture to America. This fusion of traditional African beliefs with
Christianity provided a common place for those practicing religion in Africa and America.[2]

After emancipation, unique African-American traditions continued to flourish, as distinctive traditions or

radical innovations in music, art, literature, religion, cuisine, and other fields. 20th-century sociologists,
such as Gunnar Myrdal, believed that African Americans had lost most of their cultural ties with
Africa.[3] But, anthropological field research by Melville Herskovits and others demonstrated that there
has been a continuum of African traditions among Africans of the diaspora.[4] The greatest influence of
African cultural practices on European culture is found below the Mason-Dixon line in the American
South.[5][6]

For many years African-American culture developed separately from European-American culture, both
because of slavery and the persistence of racial discrimination in America, as well as African-American
slave descendants' desire to create and maintain their own traditions. Today, African-American culture
has become a significant part of American culture and yet, at the same time, remains a distinct cultural
body.[7]

Contents

1 African-American cultural history

1.1 Oral tradition

1.2 Harlem Renaissance

1.3 African-American cultural movement

2 Music

2.1 Contemporary

3 The arts

3.1 Dance

3.2 Art

3.3 Literature

4 Museums

5 Language

6 Fashion and aesthetics

6.1 Attire

6.2 Hair

6.3 Body image

7 Religion

7.1 Christianity

7.2 Islam

7.3 Judaism

7.4 Other religions

7.5 Irreligious beliefs

8 Life events

9 Cuisine

10 Holidays and observances

11 Names
12 Family

12.1 African-American family structure

13 Politics and social issues

14 African-American population centers

14.1 Wealthy African-American communities

14.2 Ghettos

15 See also

16 References

17 Bibliography

18 External links

African-American cultural history

From the earliest days of American slavery in the 17th century, slave owners sought to exercise control
over their slaves by attempting to strip them of their African culture. The physical isolation and societal
marginalization of African slaves and, later, of their free progeny, however, facilitated the retention of
significant elements of traditional culture among Africans in the New World generally, and in the United
States in particular. Slave owners deliberately tried to repress independent political or cultural
organization in order to deal with the many slave rebellions or acts of resistance that took place in the
United States, Brazil, Haiti, and the Dutch Guyanas.[8]

African cultures, slavery, slave rebellions, and the civil rights movement have shaped African-American
religious, familial, political, and economic behaviors. The imprint of Africa is evident in a myriad of ways:
in politics, economics, language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion, cuisine, and
worldview.[citation needed]

In turn, African-American culture has had a pervasive, transformative impact on many elements of
mainstream American culture. This process of mutual creative exchange is called creolization.[7] Over
time, the culture of African slaves and their descendants has been ubiquitous in its impact on not only
the dominant American culture, but on world culture as well.[9]

Oral tradition
Slaveholders limited or prohibited education of enslaved African Americans because they feared it might
empower their chattel and inspire or enable emancipatory ambitions. In the United States, the
legislation that denied slaves formal education likely contributed to their maintaining a strong oral
tradition, a common feature of indigenous African cultures.[10] African-based oral traditions became
the primary means of preserving history, mores, and other cultural information among the people. This
was consistent with the griot practices of oral history in many African and other cultures that did not
rely on the written word. Many of these cultural elements have been passed from generation to
generation through storytelling. The folktales provided African Americans the opportunity to inspire and
educate one another.[10]

Examples of African-American folktales include trickster tales of Br'er Rabbit[11] and heroic tales such as
that of John Henry.[12] The Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris helped to bring African-
American folk tales into mainstream adoption.[13] Harris did not appreciate the complexity of the
stories nor their potential for a lasting impact on society.[14] Other narratives that appear as important,
recurring motifs in African-American culture are the "Signifying Monkey", "The Ballad of Shine", and the
legend of Stagger Lee.

The legacy of the African-American oral tradition manifests in diverse forms. African-American preachers
tend to perform rather than simply speak. The emotion of the subject is carried through the speaker's
tone, volume, and cadence, which tend to mirror the rising action, climax, and descending action of the
sermon. Often song, dance, verse, and structured pauses are placed throughout the sermon. Call and
response is another pervasive element of the African-American oral tradition. It manifests in worship in
what is commonly referred to as the "amen corner". In direct contrast to recent tradition in other
American and Western cultures, it is an acceptable and common audience reaction to interrupt and
affirm the speaker.[15] This pattern of interaction is also in evidence in music, particularly in blues and
jazz forms. Hyperbolic and provocative, even incendiary, rhetoric is another aspect of African-American
oral tradition often evident in the pulpit in a tradition sometimes referred to as "prophetic speech".[16]

Modernity and migration of black communities to the North has had a history of placing strain on the
retention of black cultural practices and traditions. The urban and radically different spaces in which
black culture was being produced raised fears in anthropologists and sociologists that the southern black
folk aspect of black popular culture were at risk of being lost in history. The study over the fear of losing
black popular cultural roots from the South have a topic of interest to many anthropologists, who
among them include Zora Neale Hurston. Through her extensive studies of Southern folklore and
cultural practices, Hurston has claimed that the popular Southern folklore traditions and practices are
not dying off. Instead they are evolving, developing, and re-creating themselves in different regions.[17]
Other aspects of African-American oral tradition include the dozens, signifying, trash talk, rhyming,
semantic inversion and word play, many of which have found their way into mainstream American
popular culture and become international phenomena.[18]

Spoken word artistry is another example of how the African-American oral tradition has influenced
modern popular culture. Spoken word artists employ the same techniques as African-American
preachers including movement, rhythm, and audience participation.[19] Rap music from the 1980s and
beyond has been seen as an extension of oral culture.[10]

Decades-old ephemera and current-day incarnations of African American stereotypes, including

Mammy, Mandingo, Sapphire, Uncle Tom and watermelon, have been informed by the legal and social
status of African Americans. Many of the stereotypes created during the height of the trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade and were used to help commodify black bodies and justify the business of slavery. For
instance, an enslaved person, forced under violence to work from sunrise to sunset, could hardly be
described as lazy. Yet laziness, as well as characteristics of submissiveness, backwardness, lewdness,
treachery, and dishonesty, historically became stereotypes assigned to African Americans.

The Mammy stereotype developed as an offensive racial caricature constructed during slavery and
popularized primarily through minstrel shows. Enslaved black women were highly skilled domestic
works, working in the homes of white families and caretakers for their children. The trope painted a
picture of a domestic worker who had undying loyalty to their slaveholders, as caregivers and counsel.
This image ultimately sought to legitimize the institution of slavery. The Mammy stereotype gained
increased popularity after the Civil War and into the 1900s. During this time her robust, grinning likeness
was attached to mass-produced consumer goods from flour to motor oil. Considered a trusted figure in
white imaginations, mammies represented contentment and served as nostalgia for whites concerned
about racial equality.

The Pearl Milling Company’s incarnation of the smiling domestic, Aunt Jemima, became synonymous
with the mammy stereotype. In 1899 the company hired real-life cook Nancy Green to portray the
character at various state and world fairs. The stereotype of the overweight, self-sacrificing and
dependent mammy figure would also grow alongside the American film industry through works
including "Birth of a Nation" (1915), "Imitation of Life" (1934) and "Gone with the Wind" (1939).

Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom cartoon clip"Uncle Tom," written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852, featured the title
character as a “large, broad-chested, powerfully made man … whose truly African features were
characterized by an expression of grave and steady good sense, united with much kindliness and
benevolence.” He forfeits his own chance at escaping bondage and loses his life to ensure the freedom
of other slaves. The stereotype of Uncle Tom is innately submissive, obedient and in constant desire of
white approval. The term became popular during the Great Migration when many Southern-born blacks
moved to Northern cities like New York, Chicago and Detroit. With them, they brought codes of conduct
expected in hostile Jim Crow environments. The stereotype was first publicly recorded during an address
by Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association member Rev. George Alexander McGuire
in 1919.

Sapphire

The Sapphire caricature, from the 1800s through the mid-1900s, popularly portrayed black women as
sassy, emasculating and domineering. Unlike the Mammy figure, this trope depicted African American
women as aggressive, loud, and angry - in direct violation of social norms. The Sapphire stereotype
earned its name on the CBS television show “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” in association with the character Sapphire
Stevens. Airing from 1951 to 1953 with an all-black cast, Sapphire Stevens was the wife to George
“Kingfish” Stevens, a character depicted as ignorant and lazy - fueling Sapphire’s rage.

During the Jim Crow period, when blacks were often beaten, jailed, or killed for arguing with whites,
these fictional characters would pretend-chastise whites, including men. Their sassiness was supposed
to indicate their acceptance as members of the white family, and acceptance of that sassiness implied
that slavery and segregation were not overly oppressive.

Watermelon

Man with Watermelon

Before it became a racist stereotype in the Jim Crow era, watermelon once symbolized self-sufficiency
among African Americans. Following Emancipation, many Southern African Americans grew and sold
watermelons, and it became a symbol of their freedom. Many Southern whites reacted to this self-
sufficiency by turning the fruit into a symbol of poverty. Watermelon came to symbolize a feast for the
"unclean, lazy and child-like." To shame black watermelon merchants, popular ads and ephemera,
including postcards pictured African Americans stealing, fighting over, or sitting in streets eating
watermelon. Watermelons being eaten hand to mouth without utensils made it impossible to consume
without making a mess, therefore branded a public nuisance.
Mandingo (The Black Buck)

Mandingo (The Black Buck)

Conjured by the minds of enslavers and auctioneers to promote the strength, breeding ability, and
agility of muscular young black men, the Mandingo trope was born. While under the violence of
enslavement, a physically powerful black man could be subdued and brutally forced into labor.
Emancipation brought with it fears that these men would exact sexual revenge against white men
through their daughters, as depicted in the film "Birth of a Nation" (1915). The reinforcement of the
stereotype of the Mandingo as animalistic and brutish, gave legal authority to white mobs and militias
who tortured and killed black men for the safety of the public.

Headlines of newspapers across the nation, beginning around the turn-of-the-century, document a
frenzy of arrests, attempted lynchings and murders of “black brutes” accused of insulting or assaulting
white women. Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson epitomized the Mandingo or Black Brute of
white imaginations in the flesh. Called a beast, a brute and a coon in print, Johnson’s relationships with
white women took up as much newsprint as his fighting abilities. With his 1910 victory over James
Jeffries, promoted as the "Great White Hope," Johnson brought white fears to a head. The result was
weeks of riotous mob violence across the nation that left thousands of African American communities
and lives in ruin.

Generalizations and stereotypes of African Americans and their culture have evolved within American
society dating back to the colonial years of settlement, particularly after slavery became a racial
institution that was heritable.

A comprehensive examination of the restrictions imposed upon African Americans in the United States
of America through culture is examined by art historian Guy C. McElroy in the catalog to the exhibit
"Facing History: The Black Image in American Art 1710-1940." According to McElroy, the artistic
convention of representing African Americans as less than fully realized humans began with Justus
Engelhardt Kühn's colonial-era painting Henry Darnall III as a child.[1] Although Kühn's work existed
"simultaneously with a radically different tradition in colonial America" as indicated by the work of
portraitists such as Charles (or Carolus) Zechel, (see Portrait of a Negro Girl and Portrait of a Negro boy)
the market demand for such work reflected the attitudes and economic status of their audience.

Samuel Jennings (active 1789–1834). Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences, or The Genius of America
Encouraging the Emancipation of the Blacks, 1792. Oil on canvas. 60 1/4" x 74". Library Company of
Philadelphia. Gift of the artist, 1792
Samuel Jennings (active 1789–1834). Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences, or The Genius of America
Encouraging the Emancipation of the Blacks, 1792. Oil on canvas. 60 1/4" x 74". Library Company of
Philadelphia. Gift of the artist, 1792.

From the colonial era through the American Revolution, ideas about African Americans were variously
used in propaganda either for or against the issue of slavery. Paintings like John Singleton Copley's
Watson and the Shark (1778) and Samuel Jennings' Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences (1792) are
early examples of the debate underway at that time as to the role of Black people in America. Watson
represents an historical event, while Liberty is indicative of abolitionist sentiments expressed in
Philadelphia's post revolutionary intellectual community. Nevertheless, Jennings' painting represents
African Americans as passive, submissive beneficiaries of not only slavery's abolition, but also
knowledge, which liberty has graciously bestowed upon them.

As a stereotypical caricature "performed by white men disguised in facial paint, minstrelsy relegated
black people to sharply defined dehumanizing roles." With the success of T. D. Rice and Daniel Emmet,
the label of "blacks as buffoons" was created.[1] One of the earliest versions of the "black as buffoon"
can be seen in John Lewis Krimmel's Quilting Frolic. The violinist in the 1813 painting, with his tattered
and patched clothing, along with a bottle protruding from his coat pocket, appears to be an early model
for Rice's Jim Crow character. Krimmel's representation of a "[s]habbily dressed" fiddler and serving girl
with "toothy smile" and "oversized red lips" marks him as "...one of the first American artists to use
physiognomical distortions as a basic element in the depiction of African Americans."[1]
Islamic culture

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Islamic culture and Muslim culture refer to cultural practices common to historically Islamic people. The
early forms of Muslim culture, from the Rashidun Caliphate to early Umayyad perioud, were
predominantly Arab, Byzantine, Persian and Levantine. With the rapid expansion of the Islamic empires,
Muslim culture has influenced and assimilated much from the Persian, Egyptian, Caucasian, Turkic,
Mongol, South Asian, Malay, Somali, Berber, Indonesian, and Moro cultures.

Islamic culture generally includes all the practices which have developed around the religion of Islam.
There are variations in the application of Islamic beliefs in different cultures and traditions.[1]

Contents

1 Language and literature

1.1 Arabic

1.2 Persian

1.3 Perso-Indian and Indian

1.4 Turkish

2 Art

2.1 Depiction of animate beings

2.2 Calligraphy

3 Architecture

3.1 Elements of Islamic style

4 Theatre

5 Dance

6 Music

7 Family life

8 Etiquette and diet

9 Martial arts in Muslim countries/cultures

10 See also

11 References

12 Further reading

13 External links

Language and literature

Main article: Islamic literature

Arabic

Main article: Arabic literature

Arabic literature (Arabic: ‫ العربي األدب‬/ ALA-LC: al-Adab al-‘Arabī) is the writing, both prose and poetry,
produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is "Adab", which is
derived from a meaning of etiquette, and which implies politeness, culture and enrichment.
Arabic literature emerged in the 5th century with only fragments of the written language appearing
before then. The Qur'an, widely regarded by people as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic
language,[2] would have the greatest lasting effect on Arabic culture and its literature. Arabic literature
flourished during the Islamic Golden Age, but has remained vibrant to the present day, with poets and
prose-writers across the Arab world, as well as rest of the world, achieving increasing success.

Persian

Main article: Persian literature

Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and it is one of
the world's oldest literatures.[3][4][5] It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been
within Greater Iran including present-day Iran, Iraq, syria, Afghanistan, the Caucasus, and Turkey,
regions of Central Asia (such as Tajikistan) and South Asia where the Persian language has historically
been either the native or official language. For instance, Rumi, one of best-loved Persian poets born in
Balkh (in what is now the modern-day Afghanistan) or Vakhsh (in what is now the modern-day
Tajikistan), wrote in Persian and lived in Konya, then the capital of the Seljuks in Anatolia. The
Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia and adopted Persian as their court
language. There is thus Persian literature from Iran, Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan, the wider Caucasus,
Turkey, western parts of Pakistan, India, Tajikistan and other parts of Central Asia. Not all Persian
literature is written in Persian, as some consider works written by ethnic Persians in other languages,
such as Greek and Arabic, to be included. At the same time, not all literature written in Persian is written
by ethnic Persians or Iranians, as Turkic, Caucasian, and Indic poets and writers have also used the
Persian language in the environment of Persianate cultures.

Described as one of the great literatures of humanity,[6] including Goethe's assessment of it as one of
the four main bodies of world literature,[7] Persian literature has its roots in surviving works of Middle
Persian and Old Persian, the latter of which date back as far as 522 BCE, the date of the earliest surviving
Achaemenid inscription, the Behistun Inscription. The bulk of surviving Persian literature, however,
comes from the times following the Arab conquest of Persia c. 650 CE. After the Abbasids came to
power (750 CE), the Iranians became the scribes and bureaucrats of the Arab empire and, increasingly,
also its writers and poets. The New Persian language literature arose and flourished in Khorasan and
Transoxiana because of political reasons, early Iranian dynasties such as the Tahirids and Samanids being
based in Khorasan.[8]

Persian poets such as Ferdowsi, Sa'di, Hafiz, Attar, Nezami,[9] Rumi[10] and Omar Khayyam are also
known in the West and have influenced the literature of many countries.
Perso-Indian and Indian

Main articles: Bengali literature, Urdu literature, and Indo-Persian culture

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, is one of the finest example of Indo-Islamic culture and architecture.

For a thousand years, since the invasion of India by the Ghaznavids, the Persian-Islamic culture of the
eastern half of the Islamic world started to dominate the Indian culture. Persian was the official
language of most Indian empires such as the Ghaznavids, the Delhi Sultanate, the Bengal Sultanate, the
Deccan Sultanates (such as the Qutb Shahi dynasty) and the Mughal Empire. Persian artistic forms in
literature and poetry such as ghazals have come to significantly affect Urdu and other Indian literature.
More Persian literature was produced in India than in the Iranian world. As late as the 20th century,
Allama Iqbal chose Persian for some of his major poetic works. The first Persian language newspaper
was also published in India, given that printing machines were first implemented in India.

In Bengal, the Baul tradition of mystic music and poetry merged Sufism with many local images.[citation
needed] The most prominent poets were Hason Raja and Lalon Shah.

During the early 14th century, the liberal poet Kazi Nazrul Islam espoused intense spiritual rebellion
against oppression, fascism and religious fundamentalism; and also wrote a highly acclaimed collection
of Bengali ghazals. Sultana's Dream by Begum Rokeya, an Islamic feminist, is one earliest works of
feminist science fiction.

Turkish

Main article: Turkish literature

From the 11th century, there was a growing body of Islamic literature in the Turkic languages. However,
for centuries to come the official language in Turkish-speaking areas would remain Persian. In Anatolia,
with the advent of the Seljuks, the practise and usage of Persian in the region would be strongly revived.
A branch of the Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum, took Russian language, art and letters to Anatolia.[11]
They adopted Persian language as the official language of the empire.[12] The Ottomans, which can
"roughly" be seen as their eventual successors, took this tradition over. Persian was the official court
language of the empire, and for some time, the official language of the empire,[13] though the lingua
franca amongst common people from the 15th/16th century would become Turkish as well as having
laid an active "foundation" for the Turkic language as early as the 4th century (see Turkification). After a
period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Arabo-Persianised itself) had developed
towards a fully accepted language of literature, which was even able to satisfy the demands of a
scientific presentation.[14] However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those
works increased at times up to 88%.[14] However, Turkish was proclaimed the official language of the
Karamanids in the 17th century, though it didn't manage to become the official language in a wider area
or larger empire until the advent of the Ottomans. With the establishment of the Ottoman Empire,
Ottoman Turkish (a highly Arabo-Persianised version of Oghuz Turkic) grew in importance in both poetry
and prose becoming, by the beginning of the 18th century, the official language of the Empire. Unlike
India, where Persian remained the official and principal literary language of both Muslim and Hindu
states until the 19th century.

Art

Main article: Islamic art

"Wayang Kulit", the Indonesian art of shadow puppetry, reflects a melding of indigenous and Islamic
sensibilities.

"Advice of the Ascetic", a 16th-century Persian miniature

Public Islamic art is traditionally non-representational, except for the widespread use of plant forms,
usually in varieties of the spiralling arabesque. These are often combined with Islamic calligraphy,
geometric patterns in styles that are typically found in a wide variety of media, from small objects in
ceramic or metalwork to large decorative schemes in tiling on the outside and inside of large buildings,
including mosques. However, there is a long tradition in Islamic art of the depiction of human and
animal figures, especially in painting and small anonymous relief figures as part of a decorative scheme.
Almost all Persian miniatures (as opposed to decorative illuminations) include figures, often in large
numbers, as do their equivalents in Arab, Mughal and Ottoman miniatures. But miniatures in books or
muraqqa albums were private works owned by the elite. Larger figures in monumental sculpture are
exceptionally rare until recent times, and portraiture showing realistic representations of individuals
(and animals) did not develop until the late 16th century in miniature painting, especially Mughal
miniatures. Manuscripts of the Qur'an and other sacred texts have always been strictly kept free of such
figures, but there is a long tradition of the depiction of Muhammad and other religious figures in books
of history and poetry; since the 20th century Muhammad has mostly been shown as though wearing a
veil hiding his face, and many earlier miniatures were overpainted to use this convention.[15]

Depiction of animate beings

Main article: Aniconism in Islam

Some interpretations of Islam include a ban of depiction of animate beings, also known as aniconism.
Islamic aniconism stems in part from the prohibition of idolatry and in part from the belief that creation
of living forms is God's prerogative. Although the Quran does not explicitly prohibit visual representation
of any living being, it uses the word musawwir (maker of forms, artist) as an epithet of God. The corpus
of hadith (sayings attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad) contains more explicit prohibitions of
images of living beings, challenging painters to "breathe life" into their images and threatening them
with punishment on the Day of Judgment.[16][17] Muslims have interpreted these prohibitions in
different ways in different times and places. Religious Islamic art has been typically characterized by the
absence of figures and extensive use of calligraphic, geometric and abstract floral patterns. However,
representations of Muhammad (in some cases, with his face concealed) and other religious figures are
found in some manuscripts from lands to the east of Anatolia, such as Persia and India. These pictures
were meant to illustrate the story and not to infringe on the Islamic prohibition of idolatry, but many
Muslims regard such images as forbidden.[16] In secular art of the Muslim world, representations of
human and animal forms historically flourished in nearly all Islamic cultures, although, partly because of
opposing religious sentiments, figures in paintings were often stylized, giving rise to a variety of
decorative figural designs.[17]

Calligraphy

Main article: Islamic calligraphy

Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy, based upon the alphabet in the
lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. It includes Arabic Calligraphy, Ottoman, and Persian
calligraphy.[18][19] It is known in Arabic as khatt Islami (‫)اسالمي خط‬, meaning Islamic line, design, or
construction.[20]

The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Qur'an; chapters and excerpts from the
Qur'an are a common and almost universal text upon which Islamic calligraphy is based. However,
Islamic calligraphy is not limited to strictly religious subjects, objects, or spaces. Like all Islamic art, it
encompasses a diverse array of works created in a wide variety of contexts.[21] The prevalence of
calligraphy in Islamic art is not directly related to its non-figural tradition; rather, it reflects the centrality
of the notion of writing and written text in Islam.[22] It is noteworthy, for instance, that the Prophet
Muhammad is related to have said: "The first thing God created was the pen."[23]

Islamic calligraphy developed from two major styles: Kufic and Naskh. There are several variations of
each, as well as regionally specific styles. Islamic calligraphy has also been incorporated into modern art
beginning with the post-colonial period in the Middle East, as well as the more recent style of
calligraffiti.

Architecture

Main article: Islamic architecture

Islamic architecture is the range of architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It
encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. Early
Islamic architecture was influenced by Roman, Byzantine, Persian and all other lands which the Muslims
conquered in the 7th and 8th centuries.[24][25] Further east, it was also influenced by Chinese and
Indian architecture as Islam spread to the Southeast Asia. Later it developed distinct characteristics in
the form of buildings, and the decoration of surfaces with Islamic calligraphy and geometric and
interlace patterned ornament. The principal Islamic architectural types for large or public buildings are:
the Mosque, the Tomb, the Palace and the Fort. From these four types, the vocabulary of Islamic
architecture is derived and used for other buildings such as public baths, fountains and domestic
architecture.[26][27]

The Stereotyped Image

Much of the research about Arab Americans has examined the stereotyped image of Arabs in

the American and Western media. Shaheen (1983) presented how the American media’s ugly

and negative stereotypes of Arabs accompany a child from his early years to graduating from

college. Through “editorial cartoons, television shows, comic strips, comic books, college and

school textbooks, novels, magazines, newspapers and in novelty merchandise” (p. 328), Arabs

were dehumanized and presented as the “bad guys.”

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Focusing on this stereotyped image of Arabs in American media, Suleiman (1988)

addressed different aspects of this stereotyping and presented a longitudinal study of American

press coverage of the 1956, 1967, and 1973 Arab Israeli conflicts and showed how the

negatively stereotyped Arab was used as a weapon in the American media in favor of Israel.

Zaharana (1995) examined the portrayal of the Palestinians in Time newsmagazine from 1948
to 1993; this research showed that the Palestinian image went through total transformation

from invisibility to high visibility after the signing of the Israeli-PLO Accord in 1993. Hashem

(1995) did a content analysis of news articles published in Newsweek and Time magazines

between January 1990 and December 1993. Hashem’s analysis showed that most of the time

Arabs were portrayed as lacking democracy, unity, and modernity in addition to having a

heritage of defeat and fundamentalism. However, he found some coverage to reflect certain

realities and fewer stereotypes when portraying Arabs.

Mousa (2000) recapitulated a few studies that dealt with the Arab image in the West and

outlined a “spill over” of the stereotyped image of Arabs and Muslims from the pre-1948

European press to the American press and media. Kamalipour (2000) mentioned the speed with

which American authorities and media accused Arabs and Middle Easterners of responsibility

for attacks against American targets. For example, he mentioned the accusation of Arabs in

the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the crash of a TWA Boeing 747 in 1996, and the 1996

bombing at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Arabs had no connection to any of these events, but

the media did not bother to report the lack of connection nor tried to undo the harm they had

already done to the image of Arabs in the American citizens’ minds.

In addition to the above research of the verbal aspect o print media, Wilkins (1995) did a

qualitative and quantitative analysis of photographs published in the New York Times between

July 1991 and June 1993. The author concluded that the images of Middle Eastern women

during the period under study, constructed these women as passive, distant and impersonal.

Scholars have also studied this stereotyped image in editorial cartoons and comic

strips. Lendenman (1983) presented how the political cartoons in The Washington Post, The

Washington Star, The Louisville Courier Journal, The Baltimore Sun, The Miami News, The

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and The Syracuse Herald-Journal have depicted Arabs in a negative

way, even portraying the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as “rodents, cockroaches
and other detestable animals” (p. 353). Palmer (1995) produced a comprehensive review of the

political cartoons published in the Washington Post during and following the 1956, 1967, and

1973 wars and following the 1988 Palestinian ‘Intifada’ in addition to the period prior to the

first Gulf War. All the political cartoons he studied depicted Arabs negatively.

On the same topic, Stockton (1994) studied Arab images presented in hundreds of

cartoons from editorial pages and comic strips. All the cartoons Stockton studied presented a

dehumanizing image of Arabs. Before introducing a sample of such cartoons and the different

ways in which Western media and writers participated in creating this false image of Arabs,

Stockton drew on the similar traits of archetype stereotyping that was previously employed to

create a false image of African American, Jews, and Japanese. Furthermore, he discussed how

these images were used to justify maltreatment of these groups. He also mentioned that the

negative image of Arabs in the U.S. intensified after the Arab Israeli war in 1967. Similarly,

Artz and Pollock (1995) did a rhetorical analysis of editorial cartoons published in the Chicago

Intercultural Communication Studies XXIII: 2 (2014) Semaan

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Sun-Times, the New York Times, Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times

during the last five months of 1990. They stated that the media successfully employed culturally

accepted anti-Arab images to promote the American offensive in the first Persian Gulf War.

The image of Arabs in American entertainment media such as radio, television, and movies

was also studied. Nasir (1979) studied the portrayal of Arabs in American movies in the first

half of the 20th century. In her study of movies exhibited in the U.S. between 1894 and 1960,

Nasir found that an Arab male’s most frequent occupation, as portrayed in the sample she

studied, was a criminal. Terry (1983) addressed how contemporary American fiction presented

Arabs and Muslims as “backward, greedy, lustful, evil, or inhumane” (p. 316). Terry added that

this group makes “convenient scapegoats in almost all contemporary fiction that deals with
Middle East themes” (p. 316).

Jack Shaheen is probably the best known scholar addressing the Arab stereotyped image in

the entertainment industry and movies. In his book, The TV Arabs, Shaheen (1984) summarized

his findings after examining about 300 programs and documentary episodes aired during the

1975-1976 and 1983-1984 TV seasons. From cartoons such as Woody Woodpecker, Bugs

Bunny and other comedy shows such as Laurel and Hardy, Mork and Mindy, and Happy

Days, to detective and police programs, Shaheen found the image of TV Arabs to be that of

“baddies, billionaires, bombers, and belly dancers” (p. 4). He stated that all the different shows

and episodes he examined perpetuated “four basic myths about Arabs: they are all fabulously

wealthy; they are barbaric and uncultured; they are sex maniacs with a penchant for white

slavery; they revel in acts of terrorism” (p. 4).

Shaheen (2001) reported his study of more than 900 Hollywood movies released between

1896 and 2001. In Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, Shaheen exposed how

the entertainment industry manufactured a prejudiced image of Arabs, condensing more than

300 million persons spread across 22 countries into a few dehumanizing portrayals. Out of the

900 films Shaheen analyzed which contain Arab characters or images of Arabs, only 63 did not

present Arabs with a negative stereotyped image.

In harmony with Shaheen, Kamalipour (2000) mentioned the negative portrayal of Arabs

in radio, television, and movies. Additionally, he named 50 movies that were released between

1974 and 1998 that showed Arabs or Arabic speaking individuals committing attacks against

Americans. Quoting from Semati, Kamalipour (2000) said that it is a mistaken belief that,

“terrorism is essentially a Middle East problem, and most victims of terrorism are American”

(Kamalipour, 2000, p. 67).

The stereotyped image of Arabs in scholarly work and academic textbooks was also

studied. Said (1975) in Orientalism and the October war: The shattered myths, presented, in
a critical approach, the myths about Arabs in the discourse of Orientalism. He showed how

this discourse has compressed, reduced, and stereotyped the image of Arabs. In addition, Said

showed how the institutions sustained Orientalism by presenting myths as facts protected by

a so-called “scientific” analysis. Ayish (1994) conducted a comprehensive content analysis of

published relevant scholarly works from 1954 to 1994. Ayish concluded that all the published

and unpublished academic works agree that Western media portrayed the Arab world in a

negative way (Ayish, 1994, cited in Hamada, 2002. Al-Qazzaz (1975) also discussed how social

science textbooks in elementary school, junior high, or high school, contributed to, carried on,

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repeated, and perpetuated negative stereotyped images and myths about Arabs. Additionally,

Al-Qazzaz (1983) presented an update to his 1975 analysis of how social science textbooks

negatively stereotyped Arabs.

Parallel to the images perpetuated in academic schoolbooks is one presented in the

Protestant Sunday school textbooks that Abu-Laban (1975) studied. The books she analyzed

were “creating, as an educational by-product, black sheep [Arabs] in the family of God.” In

these books, “Arabs are the most excluded of the deity’s descendants” (p. 166).

This negative image was presented even in games. Shaheen (1983) mentioned one example

of a teens’ game called “Oil Sheik” in which, like in Monopoly, players attempt to acquire real

estate and the players are encouraged to gain control over the oil producing nations. Moreover,

the game instructs the players to create a more “life like” game by wrapping pillowcases around

their heads or if the player is ugly to cover his/her head with the pillowcase. Shaheen quoted

from one of the game card instructions that said, “impress Arabs with your patriotism by dating

a camel” (p. 330).

Ignorance is often a building block of negative stereotypes. Suleiman (1994) presented

the results of a survey of high school teachers of world history in California, Colorado,

Indiana, Kansas, New York, and Pennsylvania. The author’s survey indicated the teachers’

ignorance about and prejudice against Arabs and Muslims. In a survey of students’ perceptions,

Kamalipour (2000) described American high school students’ perceptions of Arabs and the

Middle East as “overwhelmingly negative” (Kamalipour, 2000, p. 58).

Stockton (1994) recognized that the inferiority of the “other” the stereotyped image

presents, not only promotes the superiority of the stereotyper and his/her group, but also

provides immunity for transgressing against the stereotyped group. In addition, he said that

such stereotyping can justify key policy decisions taken by the political power in addition to

justifying injustices committed by individuals or nations against the stereotyped “other.” In

summarizing, Suleiman (1999) addressed the impact of the negative stereotyping of Arabs on

Arab Americans, asserting that the Arab American community “has suffered and continues to

suffer in many ways” (p. 1) as the negative stereotyped image of Arabs was internalized in the

mind of America.