In the “Saudi Arabia” episode of the Netflix series Patriot Act, Hasan Minhaj, who identifies himself as an American Indian Muslim, used a satirical approach to discuss the social and political issues in Saudi Arabia. Throughout the episode, he tackles about the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the relation and involvement of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Bin Salman in this case. Minhaj’s method of conducting his talk has allowed his audiences to stay engaged with his speech and better understands the Islamic trope of “‘Muslim minds’ being irrational”.
The sequence began with Minhaj talking about the murder of the Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, which has led to a change in western countries’ perspectives towards the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince. Prince Salman, also known as MBS, was seen as a “reformer” of the Arab world to the western countries for his act of lifting the ban that made it illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia. After learning Salman’s unapologetic attitude towards the murder of Khashoggi, western countries began to think that Salman isn’t really the “reformer” that they thought he was. Nevertheless, Salman’s actions were not a surprise to the Muslims and the Saudi Arabians. They have already known that Salman was not the “reformer” and they were the ones that were actually trying to push back against MBS, not the western world. This portrays the trope of “‘Muslim Minds’ being irrational” because of the Muslims and Saudi Arabians’ “irrational” way of thinking that contrasts the western world. Minhaj further justified this trope by showing the video of the Muslim female driver rapping about legally driving. He then mocks the video with the flaws that he has found in the video such as the cleanliness of the car, the car brand and how the driver has never once driven the car the in the video. Minhaj has joked about a serious issue that has affected Saudi Arabian women for years and the fact the audience has found it funny has served as justification to the trope of “‘Muslim minds’ being irrational”.
The way he mocked the video of the female driver video was effective. Although this type of behavior would most likely be classified “rude” in western society, this method has definitely helped to bring some laughs out of the audiences which attract their attention and kept them engaged within the topic, which I believe is his intent when he decided to incorporate the video as a comedic factor. And I also believe that the way this trope was responded has revealed the cultural differences between the western countries and the middle eastern countries’ contrasting respond to the same issue.