Reclaiming Sonic Identities
The post-9/11 pattern of Islamophobic sonic representations of Muslims has become so prevalent that people are finally beginning to take notice, as made clear by comedian Aziz Ansari’s SNL monologue performed the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Ansari suggests that Islamophobia could be challenged by changing the music that is so frequently paired with onscreen images of Muslims. Ansari’s declaration was met with laughter and applause, but his suggestion is no joke. Changing the way Muslims and Middle Easterners are sonically represented could only help improve the popular image of these groups. Sound has facilitated the U.S. journey to this state of heightened religious discrimination and hatred, but sound can also help to move the country forward, and indeed it already has.A lot of people are Islamophobic, which doesn’t make sense on paper, cuz, you know the god in Islam is the same god that was revealed to Abraham in Judaism and Christianity. Same god. But people are scared! Why? Cuz any time they watch movies, or TV shows, and a character is Arabic or they’re praying or something like that, that scary-ass music from “Homeland” is underneath it! It is terrifying! [imitates an Orientalist melody, reminiscent of the adhan] And people are like, ‘Aaaaah! What are they saying?!’ ‘Just God is good! Normal religious stuff it’s okay!’ You want to end Islamophobia, honestly, just change that music.
Aziz Ansari, Saturday Night Live Monologue, January 22, 2017.
On March 27, 2017 the first ever Muslim Women’s Day was celebrated worldwide. The founder of the movement, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, perhaps unwittingly, framed the day around the power of sound. Muslim Women’s Day, she tweeted, is about a challenge to the “current climate,” in which “Muslim women are rarely given the space to be heard above all the noise.”[1] Many of her tweets regarding the celebration referred to various Muslim women’s powerful voices, insisting that Muslim women can “talk back,” and “speak up,” a direct challenge to the stereotype of Muslim women as silent and subservient, which has been a media favorite for decades. The day was ultimately about listening, listening to the voices of Muslim women who are perfectly willing and able not only to speak for themselves, but to represent themselves, some even sonically.
Muslimah artist, Mona Haydar, released a music video in celebration of the first Muslim Women’s Day called “Hijabi.” The video features a multiracial cast of Muslim women, all wearing hijabs, dancing and rapping about stereotypes, and challenging common misconceptions about what it means to be a Muslim woman.[2] Muslim women have already begun reclaiming their sonic identities in ways that lay waste to the sonic representations of, not just Muslim women, but Muslims in general that have been populating movie screens for far too long now. Mona Haydar’s video is a brilliant example of the kind of sonic work that is much needed at this particular historical moment. And indeed voices like Haydar’s have been readily available to the non-Muslim public for quite some time, but their visibility is increasing, or rather their voices are being amplified for a non-Muslim American public who is now paying more attention.
Zarah Noorbakhsh and Taz Ahmed have been projecting their voices via their podcast #GoodMuslimBadMuslim since January 2015.[3] #GoodMuslimBadMuslim ravages stereotypes about what it means to be a Muslim, totally debunks common myths about Muslim behavior and lifestyle, and provides listeners with actual sounds of Muslims, that inform and entertain. Nadia P. Manzoor and Radhika Vaz, another Muslimah duo, star in Shugs and Fats, a web series comedy about the wild and quirky adventures of best friends (Shugs and Fats) that “navigates the absurdities of social conformity through the curious, loud-mouthed perspective of two veiled women.”[4] Shugs and Fats, like #GoodMuslimBadMuslim, challenges stereotypes about Muslim women, using comedy to both inform and entertain. Though each episode is quite short, usually around the five-minute mark, the series’ sound design is significant, if for nothing more than its total lack of sonic disparagement of Islam and demonization of Muslims and Middle Easterners. Rather than sonically mark the pair as a source of possible danger, the soundscapes of each Shugs and Fats episode normalizes Muslim life.
Muslim women are not alone in their efforts to reclaim their sonic identities. Karter Zaher and Jae Deen, Canadian Muslim musicians who make up the hip hop/rap group Deen Squad, write lyrics that, “rouse appreciation of the contemporary Muslim identity in today's youth.”[5] The aptly named song, “Muslim Man,” released in 2015, challenges the stereotype that Muslim men are violent, woman-hating terrorists:
Maz Jobrani, an Iranian-American comedian and actor has developed his career around challenging stereotypes about Middle Easterners and Muslims. Some of his work, including the skit “Middle Eastern Acting School” and his feature film Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero (2016) deals with the effects of cinematic sonic stereotyping on the lives of Middle Easterners in the U.S. In “Middle Eastern Acting School” Jobrani plays an acting coach who teaches his charges, “the proper way to annunciate ‘Allahu akbar,” for when they are inevitably cast as the Muslim terrorist.[7] In similar satirical fashion, Jobrani’s character in Jimmy Vestvood is accosted by a flight attendant on an airplane when he fearfully yells “Allahu akbar!” as the plane is jarred by particularly violent turbulence.
Whether with the intent of reclaiming the sonic identities of Muslimhood or not, the aforementioned Muslim artists have created works that do just that. And at no better time. The recent rise in Islamophobia has resulted in a surge in anti-Muslim hate crimes, yes, but it has also inspired many non-Muslim Americans to become allies of Muslims and Middle Easterners. Now more than ever it seems, a non-Muslim public, outraged by the various offenses of the current political regime, is open to listening to the real sounds of Muslims and Middle Easterners. As the true sounds of Islam and the Middle East gain more recognition via various forms of media, it is becoming quite clear that the sonic hegemony of Hollywood will only last as long as it is allowed.
[1] Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, March 27, 2017 (7:12 a.m.) tweet, @xoamani, https://twitter.com/xoamani/status/846364278445805568. Please see Scalar for corresponding photo.
[2] Mona Haydar, Hijabi, YouTube video, 3:19, March 27 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOX9O_kVPeo.
[3] Zarah Noorbakhsh and Taz Ahmed, #GoodMuslimBadMuslim, Podcast audio, http://www.goodmuslimbadmuslim.com/.
[4] Nadia P. Manzoor and Radhika Vaz, Shugs and Fats, http://shugsandfats.tv/about/.
[5] “Our Story,” Deen Squad, http://deensquad.com/.
[6] Deen Squad, Muslim Man, YouTube video, 3:38, Nov. 11 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDM4gqciqs8.
[7] Maz Jobrani, Middle Eastern Acting School, YouTube video, 3:45, April 28 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mapDelnxXw.
