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[alqahiri]

Borat takes on many of the characteristics which are stereotypically associated with Turks in Europe.

Actually, I read that there is a Turkish journalist who claims he was the model for the Cohen Borat character.  Apparently this guy has blog where he posted in mostly unintentially funny English and there was even a shot of him wearing embarrassingly short shorts while playing ping-pong.  And I guess he became one of the internet cult phenomena. 

Mahir Cagri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahir_%C3%87a%C4%9Fr%C4%B1

[donstefano]

Funny discussion. I look at Borat in an entirely different way: It is not about blacks, gypsies, Kazakstan etc, but what he is really doing is making fun of American middle class. Nobody seems to mention this in this discussion. Almost all of my British/european friends see the movie as one big joke about Americans. Is this something Americans fail to see themselves.
And it doesn't really matter whether it is about Kazakstan or not, any far-away country would have served for this purpose. Add to this that Kazakstan's indignation about the movie shouldn't be taken too serious. There's nothing wrong with insulting an autocratic regime

[suntoryboss]

Borat's character isn't called Ali, it's called Borat. And Ali is Alistair. My sister's name in Ali (for Allison). Is she trying to belittle Muslims too? Something tells me you have a problem with the last name of Cohen given the religion that it belongs to.

I was interested to read Professor Ian F. Hancock’s response to Sacha Baron Cohen’s character, Borat. ('Borat' Highlights Anti-Gypsy Prejudice, but a Scholar of the Roma Isn't Offended 15 Nov).   While I agree that Cohen's humour attempts highlight anti-Semitic and anti-Roma prejudice, he does it at the expense of Muslims.  His character Ali G, rude, sexist, homophobic, and asinine just happens to have moniker ‘Ali’ a name most people will associate with Muslims.  Borat hails from Kazakhstan, a country where, according to the CIA World Factbook, Islam is the largest religion.

Cohen’s comic creations belittle Muslims and create them as a bumbling ‘other’. They are tailor-made for a Culture that fears Islam and needs to be reminded of Western superiority.  Cohen’s comedy has as precedents in early 20th Century American racist humour such as blackface theatre and cartoons like Scrub Me Mama (Universal 1941).  Then African Americans were depicted as dim-witted, lazy, deceitful, and sexually rapacious.  These depictions would help reinforce the sense of superiority of white society and lessen the feeling of menace that a disenfranchised but contiguous community caused.

I am absolutely certain a generation from now society will view Cohen’s humour the same way we now view African-America stereotypes of the 1930s and 1940s.

[suntoryboss]

If you listen to borat speak in "khazak" half the words are Hebrew.... As more aware people know, the only joke in the show is the American and British public.. Borats proves their prejudices and racism. He does a service to the world.

I've never seen Da Ali G Show, but I have seen Borat.  In Borat, there was no reference to Kazaks being Muslim or any behaviour that suggested such, that I noticed.  So I really don't see how this movie makes fun of Muslims.  To me, it was mostly making fun of bigoted Americans, and the situational humor of kind-hearted Americans trying to deal with this strange fellow who didn't understand our culture.  Oh, and of course the fighting between Borat and his comapnion.

Scientiffikk makes good points.  Furthermore, the Borat character has never made reference to any specific religion, has never mentioned Islam, Allah, or any other indicator of Islam.

In fact, that the OP would associate the Borat character with Islam unpacks the OP's own cultural biases!  Why, for example would the OP assume that Borat's anti-Semitism and attitude towards women indicates that he practices Islam?

In other words, he got you.

(BTW, only very recently has Cohen "unleashed" Borat on the US.  The show originated in the UK and 90% of the Borat humor/interviews/etc is directed at our British friends.)