Ben Shapiro Announces New Daily Wire Film Depicting Campus Takeover by Extremists

Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator in the United States and co-founder of the media company The Daily Wire, has released a trailer for an upcoming film titled “Run Hide Fight: Infidels.” Announcing the release on the social media platform X, Shapiro stated that “the threat of radical Islam is real” and asserted that major Hollywood studios have spent 30 years refusing to cover the topic. Shapiro promoted the feature as the most audacious project his media outlet has produced.

According to the film’s trailer, the story centers on a fictional college campus taken over by armed extremists. The narrative depicts militants seizing a student encampment set up in support of Gaza, establishing what the film terms a makeshift caliphate, imposing religious laws, and executing non-believers. The promotional clip combines archival footage from the September 11 attacks and Islamic State group propaganda alongside video footage of student protests that occurred on college campuses in 2024.

The assertion that mainstream entertainment has ignored Islamic extremism conflicts with documentation of past film industry trends. In a 2003 study examining more than 900 films with Arab characters, researcher Jack Shaheen documented that Hollywood heavily relied on tropes casting Arab and Muslim individuals as violent, dangerous, or hostile. Action features throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s—including “True Lies” in 1994, “Executive Decision” in 1996, “The Siege” in 1998, and “Rules of Engagement” in 2000—frequently centered their narratives on Middle Eastern militants.

Subsequent releases continued similar themes, including the 2007 film “The Kingdom” and the 2015 war drama “American Sniper,” as well as popular television dramas such as “24” and “Homeland” that focused on clandestine terrorist networks and sleeper cells. While more recent television series like “Ramy,” “Mo,” and “Ms. Marvel” have introduced alternative depictions of Muslim life, commentators highlight that stories featuring Middle Eastern antagonists have long been widespread in American film and television.

The film’s promotion coincides with heightened civil discourse across the United States regarding Middle Eastern policy and rights demonstrations on university campuses. Advocacy groups have raised alarms about rising anti-Muslim prejudice and related violent incidents, including a May attack targeting the Islamic Center of San Diego where three men were fatally shot while protecting children attending a school on the mosque’s premises.

Background

The debate over media representation occurs alongside ongoing political focus on American higher education institutions. Following the start of the Gaza conflict in late 2023, students across dozens of university campuses in the United States established encampments to protest Israeli military actions and demand institutional divestment. These encampments generated significant political division, drawing both support from free speech advocates and criticism from politicians who characterized them as disruptive or aligned with extremist groups.