Muslim and Arab characters have been a part of the film industry from the beginning. Jack Shaheen, the foremost expert on Hollywood's portrayal of Muslims and Arabs, argues that the history of these groups in film is not pretty: "From 1896 until today, filmmakers have collectively indicted Arabs as Public Enemy #1—brutal, heartless, uncivilized religious fanatics and money-mad cultural 'others' bent on terrorizing civilized Westerners, especially Christians and Jews." Shaheen adds that Islam in particular gets hit hard in movies, increasingly so in recent decades: "Today's imagemakers regularly link the Islamic faith with male supremacy, holy war, and acts of terror, depicting Arabs and Muslims as hostile alien intruders, and as lecherous, oily sheikhs intent on using nuclear weapons." Shaheen estimates that, as of 2008, the number of films maligning Muslims and Arabs in one way or another exceeds 1,150.

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 541