The film drew widespread criticism for its portrayal of Arab characters. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee described it as "probably the most racist film ever made against Arabs by Hollywood".[1] Paul Clinton of the Boston Globe wrote "at its worst, it's blatantly racist, using Arabs as cartoon-cutout bad guys".
Film Critic Mark Freeman writes:
"The Yemeni people are painted in the broadest, most racist terms imaginable. Friedkin lets his camera linger over their angry faces, exaggerating their difference: the robes, the veils, the beards, the bizarre, harsh language, and their keen desire for violence. The omission of key scenes early on only serves to emphasize the horrendous racism of this film when the 'truth' is revealed later. The message of Rules of Engagement is the necessity to kill all those who actively oppose the United States and that the murder of women and children is acceptable in such cases
...copied verbatim from the wikipedia article on the film, placed there by some Saudi-Lobby funded militant Arab Muslim fascist, no doubt....
If the Arabs moan about racial stereotypes against them in Hollywood, maybe they should look at their countries and cultures, where non-Muslim "infidels" and Muslims are segregated in apartheid-like conditions, women fleeing burning buildings are thrown back into the fires if they are not dressed according to Islamic Hijab, gangs of "Religious Police" or Mutaween (street thugs for Allah) roam the streets of Arab countries slaughtering "unbelievers" and perceived "takfirs" ("false" Muslims), non-Arab (even if they are Muslims) immigrants to Middle Eastern countries are treated just like the Nazis treated the Jews (as "Untermensch" or inferior people) and kept in "work camps" and brutalized by Arab military and police, and, of course, their incessant desire to complete the work of the Nazis and massacre the Jews due to the frankly scary bloodlust of Arabs against innocent Jewish people.
Sorry, but until they fix up their own backwardedness, militancy and fascist theocracies, they got no sympathy from me.
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