Pop culture in the Arab world

The major images of Islamic societies as portrayed in the West are mainly negative - terrorism and the veil.

In the three days that Margaret and I spent in Istanbul, in 2008, we saw few women wearing the hijab and none wearing the veil. As well no bombs went off while we were there. One of our main cultural experiences was watching an European Football cup match in Tacsim square with about 10,000 Turks.

It is clear that there is more to Islamic societies than the simple image we so often see.

The video describes some examples of Islamic popular culture that indicate that Islamic societies are more diverse and interesting than usually portrayed.

The speaker's examples seem to illustrate her claim that Islamic "people are busy taking up Western innovations and changing them into things which are neither conventionally Western nor are they traditionally Islamic". There is, though, a much larger emphasis in religion than in many other countries, particularly in Australia where I live.