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January 5, 2005
TV Show Conceives of Muslim Terrorists
The New York Daily News reports that Fox's series "24" — in which Kiefer Sutherland stars as a counterterrorism agent — is kicking off the new season by depicting terrorists who are not blue-eyed Baptists from Iowa, but Muslims.
"I was shocked," screeched Rabiah Ahmed of the Council on American-Islamic Relations when she got wind of the episode, which has not yet aired. She warned that the fictional characters will cast "a cloud of suspicion" over Muslims.
This sort of outrageous ethnocultural typecasting (ET) has happened before. In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!, the pilots attacking Pearl Harbor were portrayed as Japanese. Other World War II films have Nazis speaking with German accents. Mafia characters always seem to have names that end in a vowel. White Supremacists are often played by Caucasians.
The ET phenomenon also has its sexist aspect. The Legend of Lizzie Borden won a Golden Globe in 1975, even while cynically casting Lizzie as a woman.
Rumors are circulating that studios plan to combat ET by requiring that Norman Mineta sign off on all scripts and casting decisions.
Hopefully this welcome development will put a stop to ET before the controversy widens beyond entertainment. Already there have been demands from the French that French's mustard be dyed some color other than yellow. Belgians, some of whom identify strongly with their second favorite food after beer, have insisted that the term waffle stop being used to describe the behavior of spineless politicians like John Kerry.
By the way, the 2-hour premiere of "24" is on both Sunday and Monday, January 9 and 10, at 8 EST on Fox, in case you want to check it out.
Posted by Van Helsing at January 5, 2005 6:10 AM
Comments
Great stuff...
Two years ago when CTU went after atomic bombers, they portrayed the terrorists as somewhat reasonable people who had a grudge against us (the masterminds were white Americans).
Wonder how their going to work in the "terrorists are people too" meme this time?
Regardless, I'll be watching...most addictive show on TV. In fact, I'll be blogging it every week...
http://rightwingnuthouse.blogspot.com/2005/01/hes-baaaaack.html
Posted by: superhawk at January 5, 2005 10:12 AM
It's one of the only shows I really enjoy following. And you know, it'll just be that much better watching it, knowing that CAIR doesn't like it. Now, if only Ibrahim Hooper would receive a corrective electric shock at the start of each episode...
Posted by: patrickafir at January 6, 2005 5:41 PM
I watched Sunday's episodes last night. Excellent stuff - I've got all the others. They do seem to have somewhat of a fascination with muslim terrorists, though. Not saying thats wrong or right - I'm avoiding controversy on this post!
Posted by: mark at January 11, 2005 7:27 AM
