Riz Ahmed has launched a fund to counter "toxic portrayals" of Muslims in movies.
Riz Ahmed
The 38-year-old actor became the first Muslim to be nominated for the Best Actor gong at the Oscars earlier this year for his performance in 'Sound of Metal' and Riz has insisted he's determined to fight "Muslim misrepresentation".
Speaking about his Oscar nomination in an online video, Riz explained: "I simultaneously wore that slightly dubious accolade with a sense of gratitude personally ... I also felt tremendous sadness.
"How was it that out of 1.6 billion people - a quarter of the world's population - none of us had ever been in this position until now?
"I asked myself, if I'm the exception to the rule, what must the rule be about people like me? What must the unwritten rule be about Muslims - a quarter of the world's population - and their place in our stories, our culture and their place in our society, if any?"
In spite of his personal recognition, the London-born actor thinks Muslims continue to be misrepresented in the film industry.
He said: "I'm here to briefly tell you that exceptions don't change the rules. Exceptions if anything highlight the rule and in some ways allow us to be complacent about leaving that rule in place.
"The progress that's being made by a few of us doesn't paint an overall picture of progress if most of the portrayals of Muslims on screen are still either non-existent or entrenched in those stereotypical toxic two-dimensional portrayals."
The new Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion scheme will include funding and mentoring for Muslim storytellers.
The project has been launched after a study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, titled Missing and Maligned, discovered that a speaking Muslim character featured in fewer than 10 percent of top-grossing movies between 2017 and 2019 in the UK, US and Australia.
Riz added: "The data doesn't lie. This study shows us the scale of the problem in popular film, and its cost is measured in lost potential and lost lives."
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