The US’s relationship to “Islam” – that is Islam as a construct rather than a reflection of the religion and its adherents – is contradictory. In Covering Islam, Edward Said argued that “Islam,” as a part fictional and part ideological designation, is not only based on “patent inaccuracy” but also “unrestrained ethnocentrism.” While Said focused on the racial and cultural hatred of the Muslim “other” produced in the West by cultural thinkers, experts, journalists, and policymakers, this analysis explores both racialized constructs and glorified ones. In both cases, these constructions are ethnocentric in that they represent (and help to construct) a narrow understanding that tends to prioritize US geopolitical interests. While policymakers set the terms of discussion and are the “primary definers” of a topic, cultural products, from films to news stories, also play a role in shaping how state policy is defined. Further, culture can also provide, on rare occasions, an opportunity to address American policies critically.