Excellent point. So many westerners have (and promulgate) the belief that all Islam consists of wife beating jihadists, when nothing could be further from the truth. One of the finest Marines I knew when I was serving was a Shia Muslim of Iranian heritage. It would be like having the rest of the world judge the United States only by the Westboro Baptist Church.
But then....if they wanted to make an Arabic man as the ML, they should follow thru all the Islamic culture. Like, no premarital intercourse and no touchy feely before marriage... I usually avoided Harlequins that have sheikhs, sultans etc....I couldn't enjoy the story
Well a harlequin is basically a romance that should mesmerize the reader by showing "ideal men" (how good or bad they are created is another issue) and modern type cinderellas.
And stereo typically the "ideal men" supposed to be super touchy feely xD.
U should read books like The Map of Love, and The Bastard of Istanbul. These are books centered around the women in middle-east, and see how the narrative is different than the mass portrayal. I had these books for my B.A. degree, and I loved them!
It's so nice to see a strong FL and a good ML that listened to the FL. Also I think it's important to mention how positive the islamic culture is described. In this day and age there are alot of negative statements (some justified some not) towards the islamic culture and is also represented that way in literature that feeds it's readers with prejudices. So appreciate such stories alot even though it might be not the reality.