American Celebrity Culture and Media in the Middle East

This is the sixth installment of our weekly column entitled Ask a Shiite. Our resident Shiite and United Arab Emirates citizen will be fielding questions of a philosophical, physical, and political nature in regards to Shiite Islamic belief and Middle East perception. Interested in asking a question? Send an email to alec.

Question: What are the thoughts in the UAE and in the Muslim world in general about American media and celebrity culture (form example Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, etc.)? How are Western entertainment and culture, specifically movies and music, regarded? Are there laws that restrict access to these forms of media? How do religious leaders view their influence?

Answer: The Muslim world in general has lots of different ideologies and different people. There are those who think that this entertainment culture is bringing corruption and immodesty in their people. There are also those who think that it is perfectly normal.

In the UAE, most of the people think it is normal. But there are also those who say it is bringing corruption and destroying culture. To tell the truth this western culture is influencing people everywhere so much that I wouldn’t really say that the attitude in the Muslim world is much different from the attitudes in the west or anywhere in the world.

People from the subcontinent are spread around almost everywhere and are quite influential. For them, there is the Bollywood, which also has a very similar culture as Hollywood in general.

There aren’t any laws in the UAE stopping people from accessing Western movies, culture, and general media. They do however censor some very explicit parts from being shown at the theaters. I am not sure about the rest of the Muslim world but I don’t think there is any restriction. Iran does have some restrictions as I have been told. They don’t allow nudity.

Many people hold the opinion that this entertainment industry is in reality controlled by freemasons and is used to mind control and guide people in the direction they want (evil). Of course ‘detecting’ this is very hard. They use this tool very cleverly in ways which normal individuals wont realize and will find enjoyable to experience.

To counter this, Iran has its own film industry that seems to be growing and quite good. It can be seen that today people around the world in general are getting more and more ‘westernized’ in the wrong sense. Ideas that are against religion are being seen as normal.

Day by day, more and more people are accepting Western ideas towards media and this culture as normal to varying extents.

Other Ask A Shiite Columns:

Ask A Shiite: Homosexuality in the Middle East & Islam

Ask A Shiite: The US Presence in Iraq

Ask A Shiite: Temporary Marriage and Sex and Society in the Muslim World

Ask A Shiite: Shiites & Sunnis

Ask A Shiite: Perceptions of America in the Middle East

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[tags]american culture, media, united states, mass media, islam, muslims, middle east, shiite, koran, celebrities, social corruption, globalization[/tags]