The Riz Test: Teaching Against Islamophobia Through Film The Riz Test: Teaching Against Islamophobia Through Film

Abstract This paper offers a concrete tool for teaching against Islamophobia using a film assignment and “the Riz Test.” In four parts, it briefly reviews terminology and literature connected to Islamophobia and Muslimophobia, histories of looking and the power of visual culture, pedagogy and critical viewing habits, the Riz Test, and examples of student engagement and course learning goals met through this assignment. Then, readers can use the concrete tool in their courses and practice critical viewing habits. This paper was part of a panel on “Teaching Asian Religions Through Film” presented at the Association for Asian Studies conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, March 24–27, 2022. The panel offered concrete examples on how to adopt cinema and TV to discuss Asian religions, culture, and modernity in the classroom and contributed to the developing analysis concerning the use of visual media in Asian studies pedagogy.

"The premise for empathy has to be equal humanity; it is an injustice to demand that the maligned identify with those who question their humanity." -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Islamophobia, Muslimophobia
Islamophobia is a systemic issue that affects Muslims and anyone who may be perceived as Muslim. It is acknowledged and identified, while not often actively taught against. This article addresses a specific pedagogical intervention I have most recently used in religious studies courses titled "Islam, Race, and Politics" and "Islamophobia," contextualized within recent scholarship on Islamophobia and framed as a way to teach against Islamophobia through film. 1 In his scholarship on Islamophobia, Todd Green notes that the term Islamophobia came into public discourse steadily after the Runnymede Trust created the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia in 1996 and published an influential report the following year. This report identified Islamophobia as something distinct and singled out Muslims for protection, creating a siloed view of the issue. 2 The original report noted that there were three aspects to the term, "Islamophobia." These are "unfounded hostility towards Islam; practical consequences of such hostility in unfair discrimination against Muslim individuals and communities; exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political and social affairs." 3 Scholar Salman Sayyid notes that there is "an implicit recognition of the racialization of Muslims," in the transition from hostility towards Islam to hostility against those perceived to be Muslim. 4 The authors of the original report, On the use of this word, Hammer notes, "The term has become a convenient shorthand, and like every shorthand, it contains a problematic reductionism while proving a convenient label for a much more complex set of phenomena." 7 For example, one might consider shifts in politics in which Muslims are "tools for negotiating political allegiances," imperial wars (neocolonialism), racism and bigotry (primarily through representation), or "civilizational discourses on the moral and cultural superiority of 'western' powers." 8  Sikh intended for a Muslim." 12 Singh contends that the phrase "Muslimophobia" is more precise and accurate than Islamophobia. 13 The racialization of Muslim identity occurs as people are presumed to be Muslim, not adherents to Islam. It is their racialized "religious" body that is the target, not "the religion." This framing helps expand our understanding of the violence caused by perpetrators who seek to attack or belittle those perceived to be Muslim who may follow other faiths, such as Sikhism. It also helps us understand that in cinematic representations, switching languages (Arabic to Persian in places where the opposite one would be more accurate) or casting actors of South Asian descent to play Arab characters often happens, demonstrating Muslimophobia through the interchangeability of the "apparently Muslim." Jaideep Singh has argued the category of the "apparently Muslim," rose in post 9/11 America, hybridizing and defining those deemed to be under its scope.
Neda Maghbouleh, in her book, The Limits of Whiteness, has discussed the related theory of "socially brown" in identifying racial loopholes and racial hinges in the lives of Iranian Americans. "Apparently Muslim" groups might include Muslims, Sikhs, Arabs, and those of South Asian communities. Persons of Hispanic ethnicity have also reported targeting for being deemed "apparently Muslim" as well. The visibility of racial and religious signifiers, such as "turban-wearing Sikhs, veilwearing women, and brown-skinned men with facial hair," makes the status of someone who does or does not practice Islam as less relevant than being identified as apparently Muslim. 14 Nadine Naber and Junaid Rana connect anti-Muslim racism with these signifiers as identifying potential terroristic connections which can include "specific clothing such as the hijab to an apparently 'Muslim' or 'Arabic' name, to a national origin or region of origin associated with predominantly Muslim populations (i.e. Iran, South Asia, West Asia, Northern Sudan, etc.)." 15 While race has been interpreted as a visual marker through physical appearance and based on skin tone and other factors, "religious" symbols such as a turban or hijab offered an additional marker through which the "apparently Muslim" can be identified and targeted. Students' motivation to be anti-racist or speak truth to power can be harnessed through the realization that they can process a film's representation of Muslims with these motivations in mind and using new tools gained in the course. The Riz

In another example, in
Test can function as a tool for students to put into action these pedagogical concepts of emotional connect, sense, and meaning. familiar with, such as films from a student's country of origin or a new release of which I was unaware. As long as students can apply the assignment's parameters to their media of interest, I usually accept the suggestion. Such flexibility connects with the emotional connection, sense, and meaning described in the pedagogical section above as choices empower students to engage with media that is important to them. Next, I instruct students to watch the film with the Riz Test in mind while keeping time stamps documented so they can find the most relevant clips later to show to the class. I limit these to 5 minutes of clips per student so they can focus on finding the clearest examples of their arguments about the applicability of the Riz Test and Muslim representation on screen. Then, they present the films to the class, engaging with the Riz Test, noting how they might have had to think through the decision carefully, or demonstrating through clips and quotes points of representation that deserved a closer look. Other students ask questions during the presentation, comparing issues of representation or other films and media they have consumed. Finally, students complete a short write-up of the film and points made in the presentation to submit, where they often dig deeper into issues not covered in the presentation to the class.

In action-It is always more complicated to decide!
In doing this assignment, students often find that it is not easy to decide on a clear decision as to whether the Riz Test has been met or not. While the test seems aimed for judging Western media sources, by pulling in many forms of media that can be consumed by far-reaching audiences, including feature films, documentaries, and TV series, students hone their critical watching skills across different forms of media. The results are still complicated regardless of the media source used, and the discussion generated is more valuable than a strict yes or no for passing the test.
It's important to note that since students can choose the films to engage with, they have often shied away from choosing explicitly anti-Muslim or Islamophobic films, such as Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, in exchange for more diverse and complicated stories.
In the following four examples, students use the Riz Test as a jumping off point to realize that critical viewing requires careful processing of their own assumptions and connections with course materials. For example, even when the film is a film made within a Muslim majority country, the actors are from that country, and the film demonstrates a thrilling action sequence, students wonder if it still can perpetuate stereotypes. For example, in the Iranian film, A Separation, Nader, the main character who is a husband, father, and son through different relationships highlighted in the film, loses his temper (and justifiably so, given the plot) many times. 36 Students who reviewed the film still wondered if the violence and drama on account of Nader did more to perpetuate negativity, even as it was central to the storyline. The inclusion of a film like A Separation is valuable in this assignment as a film made in a Muslim-majority country that received a wide audience as a winner of the Academy Award for best foreign language film of 2012.
In reviewing the French film L'apôtre (The Apostle), one student noted the complexity of Muslim characters present in the film, observing that it could have been easy to pit Islam and Christianity against one another in the movie, but the characters were multifaceted. 37 In analyzing the film, however, the student concluded that the movie would fail if only a yes or no were allowed in answering Films have the power to be political art, not just humanizing tools; Boundaoui asks, "where is the space for Muslim creatives to make beautifully intricate, nuanced films that center our positionality? Films that concern themselves not with war, but with life?" 45 Therefore, the point of the Riz Test must be more than an acknowledgment of humanity (and the fact that even this is so rarely represented on screen), but rather, a deeper reflection on how industries, governments, publics, Critical awareness of the consumption of culture through film can offer a means through which students can see new facets of representation and improve media consumption acumen and habits. As noted above, students can learn to see differently and improve their media consumption habits through the assignment.
The assignment creates better linkages with course materials situated in ongoing scholarly conversations as students create emotional connection, sense, and meaning in their engagement. This is a highly applicable tool that is easy to connect with other tests or practices in order to encourage critical looking and learning through film.
1 While the idea of "teaching against Islamophobia" is not new, in this instance, I was inspired by the word choice from a 2018 workshop with the Wabash Center and a new working group within the American Academy of Religion, both with the same name.