Hollywood whitewashing: Rumi set to be played by DiCaprio

When Hollywood came out with Exodus: Gods and Kings last year, the world was a little confused. A story about the ancient Egyptians and Jews was being acted out by a main cast of very, very white people. Ramses, one of the greatest Egyptian pharaohs, was played by Joel Edgerton, an Australian whose closest connection to anything Arab was when he was part of the team in Zero Dark Thirty that killed an Arab - Osama bin Laden.

Of course there was an outcry and of course people weren't happy. The movie tanked and Hollywood learned their lesson. Which is why David Franzoni, the screenwriter for Gladiator, decided he would do something to change Hollywood's largely-white status quo.

Unlike the rest of Hollywood - those bigoted bastards who only cast Muslims as terrorists - Franzoni grandly announced that he wanted to do something to "challenge Muslim stereotypes". He wanted to write a script that celebrated the golden age of Islam - a time where Islam celebrated philosophy, art, poetry and romance. And what epitomises that better than Rumi?

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A poet, philosopher, Islamic scholar and sufi mystic, Rumi's writings have not only survived the test of time, they've set him apart as one of the greatest poets in human history. Over 700 years after his death, Rumi is the best-selling poet in the US. So, when Franzoni said he wanted to challenge stereotypes, and with Rumi no less, why wouldn't we be beside ourselves with excitement?

There was just one problem though - Franzoni wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play Rumi. After all, what could challenge Muslim stereotypes more than making audiences believe that ancient Iranian scholars looked like Leonardo DiCaprio, a man so Hollywood he was actually born there.

Maybe Franzoni thought this was a compliment to the billions of Muslims worldwide. An Oscar-award winning actor agreeing to play a Muslim? What could possibly make white people like Muslims more? That question was meant to be rhetorical, but Franzoni actually had an answer - Robert Downey Jr as Rumi's spiritual mentor.

That's right, Hollywood seems to believe that to make Muslims acceptable to the wider world, they have to be white. No, not just fair, like most Iranians, but good old fashioned white people - like White Jesus.