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By Imran J. Khan February 1, 2010 Ok fine. There aren’t very many examples of Muslims portrayed favorably in Hollywood movies. That we can all agree on. But I wanted to take some time out to remember the few Muslim characters that are, surprisingly, cool and somewhat accurate. The Mummy Returns Standing next to Brendan Fraiser’s character in The Mummy Returns (2001) is Ardeth Bay played by Oded Fehr. Just look at him. He’s got a cool desert tribesman look going on complete with kohl around his eyes and a level of shawls, trinkets, and attachments that are completely unnecessary and impractical. Although his looks may be over stylized to fit the film’s campy over-the-top nature, he proves to be quite the mensch. Towards the end of the film, he leads his army against an outrageous amount of undead, mummified warriors. He slices through the enemy horde with amazing finesse and valiance and ultimately helps save the world. Sure he may be an orientalist’s dream, but he’s a suave representation of a Muslim that should be duly noted.  Pitch Black The next few few characters I want to point out are from the movie Pitch Black (2000) staring Vin Diesel. I am continually confused as to why the writer of this film chose to the include the characters Abu “Imam” al-Walid, Hassan, Ali, and Suleiman in a science fiction flick. But it is what it is I suppose. In the story, a traveling spaceship crash lands on an arid planet with little to no signs of life. The Muslim characters are traveling to “New Mecca” (perhaps in this future regular Mecca is no more?) The majority of the plot involves surviving attacks from alien creatures that can only appear during a total eclipse which happens to occur shortly after the protagonists arrive. Interestingly enough, the Muslim characters in the film are portrayed as spiritual, upright, and well intentioned especially in the face of compromising and stressful situations. Most of the Muslims are killed during the group’s constant bouts with over-sized flying harborers of death and only the Imam being among the survivors. This is a rare and suspiciously perplexing example of good natured Muslims being represented in film that is definitely worth paying attention to. At some point you have to ask - of all the movies to put nice Muslims in, why this one? Who really knows, but I’m not complaining. Kingdom of Heaven The last character I’d like to spotlight is arguably the greatest representation of a Muslim ever to be put on film. Of course, I’m talking about Saladin (that’s the anglosized spelling from IMDB) in the movie Kingdom of Heaven (2005) starring Orlando Bloom. Saladin is a great example of a Muslim actually living Islam, fully manifested. He is a wise, well-tempered military genius who is unshakably just. He displays his unequivocal morality in a scene where he offers King Baldwin IV his finest doctors to treat his leprosy while in the midst of a war against him. An added bonus is the fact that the movie is extremely accurate to Salah Uddin’s historical accounts. I think for once, Hollywood has created a legitimate Muslim role model for Muslims and Non-Muslims alike. So the good news is it only took a span of ten years to produce three noteable Muslim characters and the bad news is it took a span of ten years to produce three noteable Muslim characters. Oh well. Contact the author: Email: imranjkhan@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/imranjkhan Facebook: facebook.com/imranjk http://www.elanthemag.com/index.php/site/blog_detail/the_3_best_muslim_characters_in_hollywood_a_look_back_at_the_00s-nid8573549/