Michael Ansara Broke Barriers in Hollywood and Star Trek - Star Trek

Star Trek has also, on multiple occasions, given an in-universe nod to the Arab culture and community through both filming locale and starship epithet.

In 2016's Star Trek Beyond, the massive, spherical "snowglobe" of Yorktown, as Bones called it, was filmed in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Filming in Dubai allowed this beautiful sequence to be canonically characterized with images from a modern Arab society, normalizing the culture and environment rather than encouraging a stereotypical portrayal of its land.

In another modern example of influence from Arabian culture, Star Trek: Picard's Cristóbal Rios, a former Starfleet officer, is mentioned to have served on a starship called the U.S.S. Ibn Majid. While easy to overlook, Ibn Majid is a reference to the name of a historically significant Arab navigator and cartographer. He was often titled the "Lion of the Sea," and some scholars claim that he is the navigator who aided in the journey of Vasco da Gama — the first European to sail to India.

Star Trek exists in a world where the Federation is a collaboration of all races, species and walks of life. It's significant to recognize that their namesake ships hail not after just Westernized fleets, but of important figures from around the world. U.S.S. Ibn Majid's existence amongst the Federation's history brings light to the accomplishments of Arab culture.

While, of course, there is a long road to traverse to achieve complete representation without misrepresentation when regarding both Arab-Americans and Arabs portrayed in American society, Star Trek has undeniably laid their own stone in that path. As the franchises continue, so will the notion that in Star Trek, the future looks like us.