Ben Shapiro, a prominent pro-Israel commentator and co-founder of the right-wing news outlet The Daily Wire, claims Hollywood has spent three decades refusing to tell the story of the “threat of radical Islam.” He has released a trailer for his new film, Run Hide Fight: Infidels, describing it as the “biggest, boldest, funniest, and most impressive” movie The Daily Wire has ever produced.
In an article published by Al Jazeera, the author, an American Muslim woman, argues that Shapiro’s claim is “delusional” and that casting Muslims as villains is nothing new. In 2003, scholar Jack Shaheen, in his book Reel Bad Arabs, examined over 900 films and concluded that Hollywood frequently blurred the lines between Arabs and Muslims, portraying them as violent, barbaric, greedy, or dangerous.
Examples cited include True Lies (1994) featuring Arab terrorists, Executive Decision (1996) about Islamic hijackers, The Siege (1998) depicting terrorist attacks in New York, and Rules of Engagement (2000), which justified U.S. soldiers killing Yemeni civilians. TV series such as 24 and Homeland also built their plots around Islamic terrorist sleeper cells.
Even when changes occur, Hollywood only offers a version of the “good Muslim” who helps Americans fight the bad guys, as seen in The Kingdom (2007). More recently, works like Ramy, Mo, and Ms. Marvel provide more nuanced portrayals, but they do not erase the damage from decades of equating “Islam” and “Arab” with “terrorism.”
Shapiro’s film, according to its trailer, is set on a university campus taken over by “radical Islamic terrorists,” establishing a “temporary caliphate,” imposing Sharia law, and executing “infidels.” The film juxtaposes ISIL imagery and the events of 9/11 with scenes of 2024 campus protests, placing the student movement against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in the same frame as extremist violence.
The author concludes this is “an old right-wing conspiracy theory packaged as a new movie,” aimed at profiting from rising Islamophobia and the U.S. election season. She asserts: “For those affected by this misrepresentation their whole lives, it is certainly not new or brave.”
