Disney’s film ‘Aladdin’ about Good Arabs vs Evil Arabs. Sound familiar?

Disney has released their film “Aladdin” much to the chagrin of at least one Muslim group. The film centers on the struggle for power among Arab tribes and has a clear message that the good Arab must defeat the bad Arabs at all cost.

The film portrays a young Arab (Muslim) man of lower class who falls in love with the daughter of the Sultan, Princes Jasmine. It is also about Princes Jasmine wanting to break free from the traditional Arab (Muslim) view of woman as subservient and submissive.

Princes Jasmine want more than anything to be free. Free to do and be who she wants to be. Something that Arab (Muslim) women in general cannot do under Islamic (shariah) law.

Princes Jasmine wants to marry for love, something not generally condoned in the Middle East even today, where young girls are betrothed and married off by families to older men.

The film is also about “Jafar, the Sultan’s Royal Vizier and a cunning and powerful sorcerer who is frustrated with the Sultan’s passive stance on Agrabah’s future, devises a plan to assume the throne himself.” Jafar wants to go to war in order to expand Agrabah’s empire. Princes Jasmine, who has her father’s ear, is against war and becomes an enemy of the evil Arab (Muslim) Jafar.

Sounds like what is happening today in the Middle East.

Watch the trailer:

According to the official Disney Studios “Aladdin” website the film “is the exciting tale of the charming street rat Aladdin, the courageous and self-determined Princess Jasmine and the Genie who may be the key to their future.”

It appears calling any Arab (Muslim) a “street rat” and depicting a young Arab (Muslim) girl as “self-determined” is offensive at least to one group of Muslims. 

In The Blaze article titled “CAIR says ‘Aladdin’ film will worsen Islamophobia and racism because it’s being released under President Trump” Carlos Garcia reports:

The Muslim advocacy group CAIR says that releasing the “Aladdin” film during the presidency of President Donald Trump will worsen racism and Islamophobia, and they want critics to say so.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations says that the story that Aladdin is based on is racist and bigoted.

“The Aladdin myth is rooted by racism, Orientalism and Islamophobia,” read the statement from CAIR.

“To release it during the Trump era of rapidly rising anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and racist animus only serves to normalize stereotyping and to marginalize minority communities,” it continued.

Read more.

Now Disney Studios is Islamophobic, bigoted and racist?

Anyone who watched “Aladdin” understands why CAIR is so upset. The film is beautifully made, choreographed and filmed to present a view of the Arab world that is not unlike what is happening even today. There are still Arab (Muslim) kings, sheikhs, sultans and tribal leaders. Even former caliphs. Another reason that CAIR may be so upset is that the two lead actors, Naomi Scott (Princess Jasmine) and Mena Massoud (Aladdin) are Christians. Watch this report from MovieGuide.org.

There are still Arabs (Muslims) who are struggling and even stealing just to survive. Their is the wealthy class that looks down upon the lower class and wants, at all cost, to retain their power over the masses. Sound familiar?

Aladdin in not bigoted, racist or Islamophobic. It is a depiction of life in the Middle East, but with a good ending.

---