This theme reveals how different audiences interpret and understand stereotypes. Among all the groups, participants felt there is a stereotypical image of the Arab world. Comments showed that the participants felt BBCATV is picking on Muslims and presenting Arabs as backward and intolerant. Participants from the three Muslim groups felt that Islam is under attack in BBCATV coverage. Those who watched Buried Secrets and Je Suis Gay felt that BBCATV is stigmatizing Islam as an intolerant religion.
Druze Group
If I were to make this documentary, I would show people from all religions…. We saw that they focused on Islam and barely touched on Christians (Baligh/2/M/B).
I don’t like the fact that the BBC focused on a specific society when we are talking about a social issue (Imad/2/M/B).
What drew my attention is that the BBC focused on Islam, as it appears that most of the girls are veiled (Ghinwa/2/F/B).
Shia Group
The BBC sees Muslim society as wrong, and that it acts wrongfully. The documentary started with a group of men being dragged to prison. As if it is taken for granted that this is the way to deal with them in a Muslim society (Nabih/3/M/G).
If the BBC interviewed a Christian person, or a person from any other religion, I think it would have shown that homosexuality was wrong (Nabih/3/M/G).
The good thing is that the BBC is trying to give a bad image of Islam and this means that Islam is being attacked because it is perfect (Nabih/3/M/G). I think the BBC’s aim is to show that people are not following Islam, and it is
trying to expose it. The BBC wants to show the world that there are gays in the Arab world, although they claim the opposite (Nabih/3/M/G).
The Sunni group argued that although the BBC did not name Islam, when it speaks of Arab societies, it means Muslims.
Sunni Group
The first thing that comes to mind is that Arabs means Islam. You don’t think that an Arab means a Christian (Liliane/4/F/G).
Every time the BBC focuses on the mosque… what is the point? The BBC is trying to say that the biggest enemy to this phenomenon is Islam, although there is no religion that accepts it. Yet it only focused on mosques… (Jindi/4/M/G).
They are focusing on Islam. Why? (Liliane/4/F/G).
The BBC focused on Islam as if Muslims are the only ones who reject them. The BBC also focused on the mosque and I find it wrong (Ola/4/F/G).
The BBC is trying to say that Islam deals violently with this phenomenon, like the prisoners in Egypt (Jindi/4/M/G).
The BBC showed him (Sheikh Mohamad Awadi) as doing (woooo), if the BBC had put the whole clip in, it would show that he did not say (woooo), but it took it all out to make people afraid ... (Jindi/4/M/G).
They did not talk about the Christian religion much, as if Islam is the only religion that refuses this… (Zeinab/4/F/B).
Similarly, the Shia group believed that the way they are portrayed as Arabs is defamatory as comments show.
Shia Group:
Their message is to give a negative image of Arabs (Hiyam/3/F/G).
The BBC sees us as a closed-minded society, uneducated and ignorant (Badr/3/F/G).
The BBC sees us as backward, with no civilisation, and that we do not know how to deal with these people (Jamila/3/F/G).
The BBC sees us as people that needs to be modernised (Zeinab/3/F/G). I think the BBC is trying to tell people that we are backwards…
(Mohammad/3/M/B)
Being an Arab, means that you are fundamentalist, terrorist and ignorant (Ashwaq/4/F/G).
While the above participants felt that their religion and traditions are targeted by stereotypical images, a member from the Christian group Believed BBC is reflecting the real image of the Arab world.
Christian Group:
Christie: The documentary gives an idea of the Arab world, but not all the Arab world, just part of it. The documentary showed woman as a commodity, like someone said. If Westerners were watching this documentary, they would think the Arab world is borne’ (a French word meaning limited)
Elie: But the Arab world is borne’. The documentary in itself is borne’. Most of the Arab world thinks this way. Maybe Lebanon and Dubai are more open- minded, but the rest -- they are.
Other debates between members of the group show that some believe that BBC understands who it is addressing and how it should address them.
Raidi: BBC should have interviewed girls who had relationships and they find it normal
Fadi: but this idea does not work in the Arab world Raidi: Why not?
Elie and Elias got into a debate about how Lebanon is different from other Arab countries and that it should be addressed differently by BBC.
Elie: I would not watch it, because such topics would make people bored. Everyone is discussing the same topic in different ways.
Elias: not true. Which channel actually talked to the Arab audience about it? Elie: MTV28
Elias: don’t talk about Lebanon. This topic is a taboo in the Arab world.
The discussions also revealed that participants believed that BBCATV portrayed them this way because of its identity as a foreign media. This notion featured a lot in the comments of participants from different groups, leaving them to feel that the channel is alien to them and their cultures. This leads to the fourth theme; detachment.