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In the early 20th century, the Middle East was portrayed in popular culture as a gaudy and savage world where lecherous sheikhs lived in extravagant palaces among their harems.

It was “One Thousand and One Nights” on steroids. The region was depicted as backward and Arab peoples were treated as a monolith.

I was reminded of that magical Arabia when I saw the photographs of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, at an “Arabian Nights” party when he was 29, costumed as Aladdin in brownface makeup and a turban (a video also showed Mr. Trudeau in blackface).

The media scholar Jack Shaheen, who died in 2017, said the demonizing of Arabs and Muslims accelerated after the war between Israel and its Arab neighbors in 1967. The perception of Arabs worsened with the 1973 oil embargo by Middle East oil producers, and even more so after the Cold War ended. “We have replaced the red threat with the green threat, namely Islam,” Dr. Shaheen said.