In the Saudi Arabia episode of the Patriot Act, Hasan Minhaj discusses many common tropes about Islam. The episode focussed on how Saudi Arabia admitted to killing Washington post Journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, and how it inherently affected how Saudi Arabia was viewed by the United States.He even went as far to say that the portrayal of Khashoggi’s murder was “the most bizarre cover story since Blake Shelton won sexiest man alive”. The tropes include many tropes although Minhaj heavily discussed topics that portrayed Islam as uniquely sexist and Islam as a Monolithic religion. Minhaj’s use of comedy brings a sense of lightness to an otherwise not so easy discussion of acts racism and stereotyping against Muslims.
Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS), the Saudi crown prince, was seen by the Western World as a “reformer” of the Islamic world. MBS is known for lifting the ban against females being able to drive. Minhaj went on to show a video of a Saudi Arabian women rapping while driving her car after the ban was lifted—she was clearly happy about the change in legislation. The western world praised MBS for this because Islam has long been viewed as inherently sexist. Although the murder of Khashoggi quickly altered American opinion of MBS, as he was the one that ordered the killing.
It is often that Islam is portrayed as a monolithic religion, one that all believers think and act the same. This idea creates a generalization of millions as if they were one single individual with one opinion and one view on the world, although that is clearly not the case. Minhaj discussed that “Saudi Arabia is home to two of the holiest cities in the Islamic world, Mecca and Medina”. He referenced this as an issue of the portrayal of those who follow the religion, and how it is inherently harmful to Muslims. Minhaj went on to say that “Saudi Arabia was basically the boyband of 9/11, they didn’t write the songs, but they helped get the group together”. He was attempting to bring light to the control and power that Saudi Arabia has over how individuals view the religion, again in an extremely monolithic manner.
Minhaj, as a Muslim himself was able to discuss the tropes through an effective satirical approach. In my opinion, he was successful in depicting Saudi Arabia in the way that Muslims view the country, unlike how it is portrayed in Western media.
I think that you did a good job of explaining how Minhaj’s discussion on Islamic tropes was executed in an effective manner. I think that it was good that you pointed out the fact that him using humour to explain these tropes was unusual considering it is naturally hard to discuss this topic with ease. By comparing the way in which he discusses the way Muslims view the country versus the way the media portrays them was an important point to be made. By identifying how Minhaj critiqued the music video of the woman rapping in the car, you really emphasized this difference. I think it would have been more effective if you had explained how the public would have reacted to this music video, as Minhaj described it in the episode.
Overall, I think your blog post really answered the questions and was effective in identifying how the discussion really examined the common Islamic tropes.