Islamophobia in American Hollywood cinema: American sniper film case study

Al-Qaeda that is a terrorist organization of religion based formed one of the most important terrorist attacks in the United States (USA) on September 11, 2001. This attack has passed into history as 9/11 terrorist attacks. The members of the organization carried out suicide attacks with the aircraft they captured to the Ministry of Defense headquarters Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York which are among the main symbols of the US military and economic power. These attacks shocked the world and deeply affected the world politics. After the attacks a negative view of Islam and Muslims became widespread in developed western countries especially the USA and the Islamophobic discourse which existed before the attacks started to rise. The Hollywood film industry was also affected by these developments and a large number of films were shot that addressed the September 11 terrorist attacks from different angles since 2001. There are films that contain hate speech with Islamophobic qualities either explicitly or implicitly among these films. In this study it is aimed to introduce otherization strategies for Islam and Muslims in Hollywood-based Islamophobic films. In this context although it has a very aggressive narrative structure for Islam and Muslims which received many awards including Oscars and caused important discussions with the public analyzes of qualitative content and semiotic of the movie American Sniper (2014). As a result of the analyzes made it was concluded that islamophobic discourses and signs were used in the movie.