Dune is a racist, white savior narrative that relies on people’s ignorance of Arab Islamic history to make itself creative.
Here is why you shouldn’t applaud Dune’s casting diversity…

Dune centers around the planet, Arrakis (Iraq), in which savage desert tribes take the Duke’s son as their prophet, Moadib (Mohammad PBUH), as he struggles to determine whether to lead them into a holy war…sound familiar?

Adding giant desert worms, space-ships, and changing oil to spice doesn’t change the simple fact that Dune takes Arab Islamic history (complete with tribes speaking Arabic) and presents it as a unique, creative sci-fi world.

Herbert relies on the fact that you don’t know Arab Islamic history to lend the story exoticism and fantasy. Add that their prophesied savior is the son of the colonist extracting Arrakis’s resources and you have Orientalism at its finest.

Just because you see brown faces on the cast list, you shouldn’t applaud because clearly all minorities aren’t created equal in the eyes of Hollywood.

In a story which rips off Arab Islamic history where characters speak Arabic, no Arabs are billed. Timothee Chalamet is a literal white savior. The other brown faces in the cast attempt to reflect a “post-racial” world in a story that has racism at the core of its narrative.

Arabs and Arab-allies, Muslims and Muslim-allies, need to stand up and make a fuss about this movie. They need to demand to see Arab faces. Or else Dune will just join the list of movies that, if not being outright racist with Arab Islamic history, work to erase it.

For more on this, check out @HannaFlint's article on "Why Arab and Islamic Representation Matters in Dune." https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/why-arab-and-islamic-representation-matters-in-the-new-dune