The Cultural Politics of Islam in U.S. Reality Television

Abstract

To a limited extent, post-9/11 U.S. media has begun to accommodate Middle Eastern identities that go beyond Orientalist binaries common to American film and television. By exploring 2 reality television shows, All-American Muslim and Shahs of Sunset, this article asks: How can we understand this increase in representations of Arabs, Iranians, and Muslims within U.S. popular culture? Examining how Islam is represented (or not represented) in each show provides a window onto different media representational strategies, highlighting the possibilities and limitations of inclusion afforded by liberal multiculturalism and revealing the still-thorny cultural politics of Islam in a post-9/11 context.