At a glance

Identifiers: Wikidata imdb
Review: Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

Images of Islam Law and courts Muslim minorities under non-Muslim rule

Screening Room

Format: Film · Muslim society as setting
Released: 1978 CE · 1398 AH†
Countries: US · GB
Languages: en (original) · tr (original)
Approach: journalism
Depiction of sacred figures: The Prophet: Not applicable · Companions: Not applicable · Imams: Not applicable

Where to watch officially: No official link recorded. · Listed, not endorsed.

Overview

Alan Parker's film about an American imprisoned in Turkey for smuggling; it became a reference in studies of the negative image of Turkey and Ottoman prisons. ¹ ²

People and things also explored

Reel Bad Arabs· The Siege· Traitor· Babri Masjid· Ahliyya (legal capacity: to have rights and duties, and to act; its stages from the womb to full maturity, and what impairs it)· Democracy and the Sharia — compatibility and conflict· Fatwa on the satellite channels — its benefit and harm· Secularism and Islam — conflict or concord

Sources

Wikidata
IMDb

Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Midnight Express”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/screen/al-azaba-1978/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-17.

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Reel Bad Arabs

The Media Education Foundation documentary built on Jack Shaheen's book documenting Hollywood's stereotyped portrayal of Arabs and Muslims across a thousand films.