Why do American troops in Hollywood movies call Arabs “hajis”?

11 comments

1. I’ve never heard that and I haven’t seen that movie.

   What does that word mean?

2. [removed]

3. In that context it would be a slur. But the original meaning is someone who’s competed the pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hajj).

4. The same reason they call the Vietnamese “gooks” and Germans “krauts” etc in other war films – it a plot device to illustrate that the enemy is different/lesser than the protagonists

5. I’ve heard it used as a slur.

   I figured it was a reference to [Hadji](https://jonnyquest.fandom.com/wiki/Hadji), a character from the old Johnny Quest cartoons (yes, the character was Indian and not Iraqi…but do you really expect people who use ethic slurs to be sensitive to this type of thing?).

6. It’s a racist slur

7. There’s older cartoon called Jonny Quest, where [one of the main characters is named Hadji](https://jonnyquest.fandom.com/wiki/Hadji_Singh).

   Hadji wasn’t even Arabic in the show, but the artists drew him a way that makes him *look* Arabic, and people prone to ethnic slurs aren’t exactly careful about which slur they use.

   But that’s probably incomplete information. The writers wouldn’t have called an Arab-looking character “Hadji” if they hadn’t heard it somewhere else first. But at least at the time the cartoon was drawn it was still polite of a term that they could include it in a children’s cartoon.

   But I’d argue that’s where the term originated as an ethnic slur.

8. It was used as an offensive substitute to describe “Islamic”.

   [As can be seen in this video shot in Iraq, ’04-’05.](https://youtu.be/h0nkhgO1oto?t=367) Where the soldier calls non-alcoholic beer a “Hajji brand”.

9. If I had to guess it has something with the word hijab, or at least some Arabic word because it’s not a English word or slang version of a English word I think any American would recognize. The reason they use it in movies is because American troops used it I think typically in Afghanistan and Hollywood wanted to find something that’s sounds catchy but real to characterize the non-politically correct stereotype of the military. Idk how prolific its usage was In Afghanistan though

10. It is Arabic for old man in Hollywood it’s a slur. In Iraq it was a term of endearment like saying elder it is used for someone who has completed the “Haj” like traveling to Mecca and completing the religious journey. That’s what an interpreter told me when I was in country. I think it’s used in American like how Charlie was used in Vietnam.

11. A slur for Muslims, because of the Hajj to Mecca. Soldiers calling the enemy by a common name, slur or not, has been going on as long as two tribes have been fighting over a watering hole.