Initiative Aims to Change How Movies Portray Muslims

A new initiative to promote the inclusion of Muslims in filmmaking has been created by an advocacy group with the support of the Walt Disney Company -- following a report issued this year that found that Muslims are rarely depicted in popular films and that many Muslim characters are linked to violence. The project, the Pillars Muslim Artist Database, was announced on Tuesday by the Pillars Fund, an advocacy group in Chicago. It produced the earlier report on depiction along with the University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and others.