Collective Identity

1. Collective Identity

2. Team America • Team America is a film by Trey Parker, regarding the ethos of American life after 9/11. • The film is constructed as a parody and comedy, although it is highly controversial due to the contentious nature of the topic. • The film deploys stereotypes (archetypes) to set its point and also uses the British puppet-string technique to avoid trouble. This allows the auteur to demonstrate whatever views and opinions he may have due to the characters being pseudo.

3. Representation of Muslims in Team America • Throughout the film the Muslims are represented as negative and people who do wrong. • They are seen at the start attempting to detonate a bomb before America intervenes. (Somewhat destructively)

4. Representation of Muslims in Team America • They lose further status and audience acceptance when they kill one of the protagonists within the opening ten minutes. • They are represented as controlled and evil, this is in binary opposition to America who are destructive and very heavy handed.

5. Representation of Muslims in Team America • Parker positions the audience so that they have a negative reading towards the Muslims. This happens throughout and we see them as nasty individuals so there is a dominant-preferred reading. • Their war with America is seen as pointless however, due to the intensity of the destruction. For example the Eiffel Tower, The Pyramids and Mount Rushmore all fall victims to the war, ripping the cultural idents away from the country.

6. Muslim History Pre 2004 • 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.

7. Muslim History Post 2004 • 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.

8. Muslim History Post 2004 • 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.

9. Application of History to Film • 9/11 Attacks • See films, ‘Team America’, ‘Yasmin’, ‘World Trade Centre’ and ‘United 93’ • Arab Representation • See films, ‘East is East’, ‘House of Sand and Fog’, ‘House of Saddam’ and ‘Aladdin’ • Diverse Society • See films, ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’, ‘East is East’, ‘This is England’ and ‘Somers Town’

10. 2004, In film. • As well as Team America being released, the following films also came out in this year. • Fahrenheit 9/11 – A Michael Moore Documentary looking at the politics of America. • Million Dollar Baby – Dominated the awards for 2004. • Voices of Iraq – A Documentary regarding the chaos in the country was also unveiled this year. • Eternal Sunshine, The Notebook, Collateral and Shaun of the Dead also screened this year. • Ironically, the Thunderbirds Movie also screened this year, however the same puppet technique as used in Team America was dropped.

11. 2004, In Politics. • George Bush was re-elected for the final time, his tenure would end in 2008. • Iraq’s governing council changes hands several times throughout the year. • British Government cleared of ‘falsifying information on weapons of mass destruction’ • Kim Jong-il is still recovering from admitting to creating Nuclear weaponry – even though he signed an agreed framework saying he would not do so. • Tense relations between America and North Korea continues to be negative. • New presidents of Germany, Austria, Romania, Luxembourg, Serbia, Georgia, Singapore and Lebanon are elected.

12. Political and Social Conditions in Saudi Arabia • Saudi Arabia is a monarchy with royal power vested in the descendants of King Abdal-Aziz Al Saud (known more commonly as Ibn Saud), the founder of the modern Saudi state. • For over two centuries, Saudi Arabia’s ruling family has relied upon religious leaders to help bolster its legitimacy among Saudis, and leading conservative Muslim clerics have gained extensive influence over Saudi social policy. • As a result of this tacit alliance between the ruling family and the religious hierarchy, clerics practicing a puritanical version of Islam, known as Wahhabism, have been able to institute a number of social restrictions, such as the segregation of the sexes, the prohibition of the sale and consumption of alcohol, and a ban on women driving.2 Some analysts believe that such social restrictions have fostered a climate of extremism in Saudi Arabia. • Saudi officials have issued statements insisting there is no association between Islam and terrorism. For many years, Saudi officials and some outside observers did not place Islamic militancy at the top of their policy agendas, believing that the Kingdom’s Islamic roots immunized it from extremist elements.

13. Saudi Arabia links to 9/11 • In its findings on the connection between the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the phenomenon of growing Islamic extremism in Saudi Arabia, the 9/11 Commission Report states that “the United States and Saudi Arabia must determine if they can build a relationship that political leaders on both sides are prepared to publicly defend — a relationship about more than oil. It should include a shared commitment to political and economic reform, as Saudis make common cause with the outside world.” • This recommendation is based largely on the notion that after the 9/11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 airline hijackers were Saudi citizens, Saudi Arabia’s domestic political environment is of great concern to U.S. national security. Traditionally, the United States has tread lightly on the issue; the U.S.-Saudi relationship has long been based on a tacit understanding that the United States would refrain from interfering in Saudi domestic affairs in return for Saudi cooperation on energy and security issues in the Persian Gulf. • The Commission’s report recognizes that Saudi Arabia itself faces unrest and terrorist activity by Islamic radicals and that Saudi Arabia must address the extensive influence of its religious establishment and stagnant socio-economic conditions, which some believe are fostering religious extremism.14 The 9/11 Commission Report insists that the U.S.-Saudi relationship must evolve from its current state and that leaders on both sides must agree on a common framework for addressing reform in Saudi Arabia without unintentionally causing an extremist backlash against either government.

14. Strained Relations, Attempt to Repair. • Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia were strained after the September 11 attacks, when nineteen men affiliated with al-Qaeda, including 15 Saudi nationals, hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners, crashing two of the planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing 3,000. Saudi Arabia issued a statement on the day of the terrorist attacks on America's World Trade Center and Pentagon, calling them "regrettable and inhuman." Saudi recognition to the Taliban stopped and as of mid-November 2001, the Bush administration continued to publicly praise Saudi support for the war on terrorism. However, published media reports have indicated U.S. frustration with Saudi inaction. Although 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals, publicly the Saudis were not cooperating with Americans wanting to look at background files of the hijackers or interview the hijackers' families. • In his first formal television interview as U.S. President, Barack Obama addressed the Muslim world through an Arabic-language satellite TV network Al-Arabiya. He expressed interest and a commitment to repair relations that have continued to deteriorate under the previous administration.

15. Theories of Identity • Social identity is a theory expounded by Henri Tajfel and to understand the psychological basis of intergroup discrimination. It is composed of four elements: • Categorization: people often put others (and ourselves) into categories. Labeling someone a Muslim, a Turk, a Gimp or a Socca playa mate are ways of saying other things about these people. • Identification: people also associate with certain groups (ingroups and outgroups), which serves to bolster our self-esteem. • Comparison: people compare our groups with other groups, seeing a favorable bias toward the group to which we belong. In modern day times younger people stereotypically divide themselves into social groups like jocks, goths and hoodies. • Psychological Distinctiveness: people desire our identity to be both distinct from and positively compared with other groups.

16. Theories of Society • Cultural dissonance is an uncomfortable sense of discord, disharmony, confusion, or conflict experienced by people in the midst of change in their cultural environment. The changes are often unexpected, unexplained or not understandable due to various types of cultural dynamics. • Studies into cultural dissonance take on a wide socio-cultural scope of analysis that inquire into economics, politics, values, learning styles, cultural factors, such as language, tradition, ethnicity, cultural heritage, cultural history, educational formats, classroom design, and even socio-cultural issues such as ethnocentricism, racism and their respective historical legacies in the cultures.

17. Theories of Society • Minimal group paradigm (MGP) is a concept used in social psychology (e.g. Tajfel, 1970) to identify the minimal requirements needed for intergroup discrimination. In these experiments it was discovered that arbitrary and virtually meaningless allocation into groups would result in individuals favouring of their in-group. • This is done via mechanism explained in social identity theory and self-categorization theory, where in-group members seek for collective-esteem building social comparisons with other groups. • For example, in-group members may attribute the achievements of out-groups to luck, or contextual circumstances; additionally, in-group members will attribute their own achievements to the success of the group and the benefits of their aims and ethos. In-group members will also make biased comparisons with less-fortunate out-groups to support the validity and legitimacy of their beliefs, values and behaviours. This fact of attributing your own group's achievements to internal causes, and the out-group's achievements to external causes, is known as the fundamental attribution error. • By doing such, in-group members are able to enhance the boundaries between groups, allowing their group to be distinct from others. Threat to distinction in minimal groups is often overcome by making more biased social comparison, by expelling black sheep (anti-norm deviants), and re-categorizing the in-group to exclude members that share out-group values.

18. Theories of Society • Cultivation theory is a social theory designed in the 1960s and '70s to examine the role of television on Americans. • Developed by George Gerbner and of the University of Pennsylvania, cultivation theory derived from several large-scale projects "concerned with the effects of television programming (particularly violent programming) on the attitudes and behaviors of the American public" (Miller, 2005, p. 281) Miller (2005) says, "The widespread influence of television ... was a concern for many scholars and policy makers. In the late 1960s, civil unrest, the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other events convinced many that we had to know more about how television affects us" (p. 282). • Gerbner and his colleagues took a large role in the research projects, which included the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence in 1967 and 1968 and the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior in 1972.

19. Theories of Media/Society • Mean World Syndrome is a phenomenon where the violence-related content of mass media convinces viewers that the world is more dangerous than it actually is, and prompts a desire for more protection than is warranted by any actual threat. • Mean World Syndrome is one of the main conclusions of cultivation theory. The term was coined by George Gerbner, a pioneer researcher on the effects of television on society, when he noted that people who watched a large amount of television tended to think of the world as an intimidating and unforgiving place. • Individuals who watch television infrequently and adolescents who talk to their parents about reality are said to have a more accurate view of the real world than those who do not, and they are able to more accurately assess their vulnerability to violence. They also tend to have a wider variety of beliefs and attitudes. • Political strategists can take advantage of voters suffering from this syndrome to sway them. For example, critics and some supporters of George W. Bush accused Bush's supporters, most notably the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, of using a FUD-based campaign in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. • Perhaps the most famous example is Anita Bryant's successful 1977 Save Our Children campaign to repeal a Florida ordinance which outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

20. Theories of Culture • 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.

21. Theories of Religion • Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry, where this is not to be expected. Thus, some philosophers may hold that the universe is really just one thing, despite its many appearances and diversities; or theology may support the view that there is one God, with many manifestations in different religions. • Islam - Many followers of Sufism advocated monism. Most notably the 13th-century Persian poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi (1207 -73) in his didactic poem Masnavi espoused monism.[3][4] Rumi says in the Masnavi, "in the shop for Unity (wahdat); anything that you see there except the One is an idol.“ • According to Vincent J. Cornall, the Qur'an also provides a monist image of God by describing the reality as a unified whole, with God being a single concept that would describe or ascribe all existing things:"He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward; He is the Knower of everything (Sura 57:3)“ • Another verse in the Quran is "To God belongs the East and the West, Wheresoever you look is the face of God.(Sura 2:115)". • There are many other verses such as Quran 15:29, 38:72 etc which say that God blew his breath in man, which are interpreted to mean that an imprint of God is present inside man.