The Turban the Dragon Rider is wearing can be interpreted as a symbol of Islam. Often Muslims are portrayed damagingly in the media (Bullock & Zhou, 2017). 57% of the New York Times headlines including the words Muslim or Islam between 1990 and 2014 were negative (Bullock & Zhou, 2017). This negative portrayal of Muslims leads to a bad perception of Islam in society (Bullock & Zhou, 2017).
A popular representation of Muslims in media can be found in the Disney movie Aladdin. In the movie veiled women are depicted to be oppressed, while most characters are stereotypically portrayed with hooked noses and barbaric character traits (Bullock & Zhou, 2017). Aside from Aladdin, characters in other media who are wearing veils are often branded as villains, a popular example is Harry Potter's professor Quirrell.The BBC television show Merlin and the Universal show Stargate SG-1 use orientalist themes with the use of veils to depict characters as exotic, oppressed, or to villainise them (Bullock, 2021).
Here It stands out that characters who are not Muslims wear a turban-veil to help viewers identify characters that are supposed to be perceived negatively (Bullock, 2021). Further, the veiling of women in media is often used to make their mysterious guise seducing to the viewer (Bullock, 2021). The Turban on the other hand used to have a different role as the female veil, as it was often simply used to signify Muslims in European representation (Bullock, 2021).
Since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11, the fear and negative view of Muslims has intensified (Bullock, 2021). Ever since, the view on the turban changed as well, as it is often used to signify terrorists and a threat to Western society (Bullock, 2021). Further, an insider vs outsider view is created by making characters who are wearing a veil characterised as the antagonists or as “the other” (Bullock, 2021). Although the Dragon Rider is depicted as an outsider by living far from the other dragons in the desert and by being the only one without a name, he is also described as a friend and promoted as equal to the other dragon riders (Young Dragon Rider, n.d.).