has been much more positive. Large communities
in the Americas and even more significant ones
in Europe are having the effect of changing the
way Muslims experience and understand their
religion as well as creating greater opportunity
for interreligious communication and dialogUe
(or conflict in some cases). New to interpreting
approaches Islam and interpretations that take
these new experiences into account are enrich-
ing the Muslim intellectual repertoire in ways
that will almost certainly have great impact in
the years to come. In light of this ongoing and
increasing mingling of peoples and religions, a
“clash of civilizations” between Islam and the
West is actually very unlikely, although conflicts
based on specific grievances in Muslim-majority
countries are likely to continue to have an impact
on interreligious relations.
See also colonialism; dhimmi; eUrope; JUdaism
and islam; United states; latin america.
John IskanderFurther reading: Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:
Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 2003); Richard W. Bulliet, The Case
for Islamo-Christian Civilization (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2006); Norman Daniel, Islam and
the West: The Making of an Image (Oxford: Oneworld,
1993); Hugh Goddard, A History of Christian-Muslim
Relations (Chicago: New Amsterdam Books, 2000);
Tarif Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in
Islamic Literature (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 2001).
cinema
Although motion picture technology first devel-
oped in eUrope and the United states during the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, film produc-
tion rapidly became a global phenomenon. It was
first introduced into Muslim lands by Western-
ers, but by the 1930s and 1940s, native entrepre-
neurs had developed their own film industries,
which really began to flourish after World War
II with the rise of newly independent nation-
states. Except for saUdi arabia, where movie
theaters are banned because of the puritanical
outlook of the Wahhabi Islam practiced there,
the cinema became a popular pastime in many
countries, especially among city dwellers. egypt,
iran, and tUrkey have become major centers of
film production in the Middle East. lebanon,
algeria, Tunisia, indonesia, and malaysia have
also developed their own film industries. india,
where secular-minded Muslims are active in the
cinema, produces more films than any country
in the world. The following article discusses the
Arab, Iranian, and Indian cinemas as well as rep-
resentations of Arabs and Muslims in American
and British films.ArAb CINEMA
cairo is the Hollywood of the Arab world. Nearly
3,000 films have been produced in Egypt. No other
Arab country comes close to this number. The first
screenings of the French Lumière brothers’ films
took place in Alexandria in 1896. Egypt began
producing its own films as early as 1909, but film
production during the colonial period was domi-
nated by European capital and often by European
directors as well. Egypt was the only Arab country
to establish a national film industry prior to its
formal independence in 1952. Most other Arab
countries did not develop a national cinema until
the period of decolonization after World War II.
Arab cinema has been greatly influenced by
Hollywood. American-made movies early on cap-
tured local markets in many Arab countries,
Egypt included—as much as 80 percent of the
screen time is monopolized by American film
exports. However, Arab cinema also developed
its own cinematic idioms and cultural nuances
even as it adapted Hollywood plots and churned
out low-budget comedies, musicals, and romantic
dramas. The great Arab comic film actors such as
Egyptians Ismail Yasin and Adel Imam and Syrian
Durayd Laham were masters at slapstick humor,
but they all employed their comic talents in filmsK 144 cinema