Muslims protest reprised role as terrorists in Fox hit series '24'

[Purveyor]

CLIFTON, New Jersey: Two years ago, Muslim groups protested when the plot of the hit Fox drama '24' cast Islamic terrorists as the villains who launched a stolen nuclear missile in an attack on America.

Now, after a one-year respite during which Russian separatists played the bad guys on the critically acclaimed series, Muslims are back in the evil spotlight. Unlike last time, when agent Jack Bauer saved the day, the terrorists this time have already succeeded in detonating a nuclear bomb in a Los Angeles suburb.

Being portrayed again as the heartless wrongdoers has drawn renewed protests from Muslim groups, including one that had a meeting with Fox executives two years ago over the issue.

"The overwhelming impression you get is fear and hatred for Muslims," said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. She said Thursday she was distressed by this season's premiere. "After watching that show, I was afraid to go to the grocery store because I wasn't sure the person next to me would be able to differentiate between fiction and reality."

She said the group had a conference call Wednesday with Fox executives to protest the current plot line and request more positive portrayals of Muslims on the show, but was not promised anything.

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http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MDYwMTMxJnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==

[Ian David]

1. Well, good luck to Fox, then. Just leave Family Guy and The Simpsons alone. n/t

[BushOut06]

2. Hmmmm, methinks I hear an echo...

I pretty much said the same thing a few days ago. I realize it's a TV show, and that it's entertainment. However, there are those who somehow either cannot differentiate between reality and entertainment, or choose not to. When you have Russians or some other bad guys, there's a disconnect for many people. However, when you show Muslims as being the terrorists - especially with nukes - some people are more apt to say "yep, that's just how they are."

Now obviously, I'm sure that 99.99% of us could watch this show and not feel such feelings. But picture your average freeper family watching this show. Somehow, I think their reaction to this show is going to be different from ours.

[pitohui]

3. so we can't tell stories where muslims are terrorists?

only white people can be terrorists in fiction?

that's pretty lame

if a lady feels she can't go to the grocery store because her neighbor watched a teevee episode she didn't like, i have to say that the lady should get treatment for her anxiety rather than trying to censor what people can say and create

all this special pleading for muslims IS going to backfire

hell it's probably a publicity stunt engineered by fox themselves, no one is this stupid to try to say that you can't ever show muslims being the bad guy on teevee

[Starbucks Anarchist]

18. Anyone that crazy wouldn't need a TV show to set them off.

That's like blaming Columbine on heavy metal music or video games instead of on the access to guns and shitty parenting.

[RamboLiberal]

4. I think the previous season they are referencing is Season 2

Now it started out with what looked like ME terrorists and a red herring was it looked like the terrorist was going to be a ME guy who was marrying a blonde white woman. She turned out to be the terrorist along with a shadow group of U.S. spec op guys and a shadow group within the U.S. Government who overthrew the President for hesitating to blame and bomb a ME country for the nuke in L.A.

It's only 4 hours in to this season, who the heck even knows where this plot is going. Hell the writers don't even know - the season is probably still being written. They didn't decide last year to turn Logan in to a weasly Nixon/Bush type who had orchestrated the murder of ex-President Palmer and a way to go to war with former Soviet Union countries till near mid-season. Oh and they showed a ME agent working with CTU who was beaten to death by some ignorant rednecks thereby endangering the U.S.

I've watched 24 since Season 1 and don't buy it's purely a neocon fantasy. Too many people are getting their shorts in a twist too soon IMHO.

It's fiction people! Everybody in the 24 universe can end up being a terrorist.

Sorry Muslims, but fiction does mirror reality to an extent, and last time I looked there was a lot of terrorism occurring in the ME and there are those who would attack us if they could. Did they note one of the CTU agents is named Nadia Yassir and of ME heritage?

I'm sorry Rush, Heritage Foundation, current Bushies, etc., like this show. They kind of taint it. They don't even recognize that some of the plots actually are a cautionary tale against their own excesses!

Hell I know a local liberal talk show host and a local liberal newspaper columnist who like me are fans of the show and look forward to watching Jack Bauer each Monday night for the latest plot twist!

[Hoping4Change]

6. Good points. Kieffer talking with Charlie Rich said that polls

show that as many Dems as Repukes watch the show. With Kieffer's granddad being a socialist and father of Canadian universal healthcare and his Mom politically active, I don't for an instance belive he would do it if he thought it slanted to the right. In fact he said the writers are equally divided politically. I am impressed that that are powerful roles for Muslims that are not terrorists (ie those in the CIA)and I as blown away by the role of Assad, yeah he is brutal but he has had a change of heart, and he stuck to his word, he definitey is not a cardboard character.

[kitty1]

12. Carlo Rota who plays the charming Morris is also....

a Canadian actor. When he's not on 24, he plays an engineering contractor on the new CBC series, Little mosque on the prairie. I love his accent. He sounds so suave. (I'm also partial to good looking bald guys though)

[iverglas]

16. and of course not just him!

There's dozens of 'em -- us Canadians. Bauer's original wife and daughter and nemesis, for starters. One of the Saturday papers -- could have been the Star, but I think the Globe -- had a full-page article about them all.

Here we are:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070113.TWENTYFOUR13/TPStory/?query=kiefer
(only available on line until tomorrow)

As Canadian as complaining
Kiefer Sutherland's torture-happy agent Jack Bauer is far from the only Canuck to have darkened the set of TV's 24. As it heads into its sixth season, STEPHEN COLE looks at the rogues' gallery of Canadians who wreaked havoc on the hit Fox series

Excerpting only the names and roles:

Kiefer Sutherland

Leslie Hope
Jack Bauer's sympathetic first-season wife, Teri Bauer.

Elisha Cuthbert
Jack's danger-prone daughter.

Mia Kirshner
Bisexual double agent Mandy in season one.

Peter Outerbridge
Played henchman of businessman bad guy Peter Kingsley in season two.

Max Martini
CTU agent Steve Goodrich in season two.

Alberta Watson
CTU L.A. field commander Erin Driscoll in season four.

Carlo Rota
Mysterious Brit Morris O'Brian, formerly a Beverly Hills footwear clerk, comes aboard in season five

Roger R. Cross
Curtis Manning, stolid CTU operator

Wendy Crewson
Anne Packard, the very personal physician of President Palmer.

Cameron Bancroft
in season four, playing SWAT Sgt. Lee Castle

Shawn Doyle
CTU head of field ops, Ronnie Lobell, at start of season four

Geraint Wyn Davies
Former CIA agent James Nathanson.


Well, enough for both sides in a hockey game, anyhow. ;)

[sarcasmo]

7. Don't you feel this season is purely Propaganda.

The first four hours, the only word I could think of was Propaganda.

[RamboLiberal]

9. No I do not - IMHO there's been a huge overreaction

It's just a TV show! I'll wait to see how the season plays out. As I mentioned at this point in Season 2 it looked like the terrorists were Muslim and there was a brouhaha then that died down as the season played out.

[sarcasmo]

10. I have watched since season one and haven't felt this way. That first four hours

was tough to watch.

[Roland99]

15. Yeah, stuff like this was pretty hard-core, even for Jack Bauer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDPF9pCK4L0

(warning: video not for the squeamish nor easily offended)

[theboss]

5. Kumar was a terrorist

That was disappointing. I thought he just loved drugs and sandwiches.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[iverglas]

11. maybe even more than that

-- what troubles me is the escalating violence, and implicit approval of it, in the series. (We've been devoted watchers in my living room since episode 1 of season 1.)

Someone explained "jumping the shark" to me today. I may be ready to use it. Incorporating the use of degradation and torture into the plot line / action without even any reflection on the issue, as is being done now, kind of eliminates any distinction between 24 and any other insubstantial actioner.

Obviously, I'm not the only one on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_(season_4)

Although torture, used by both the U.S. and its opponents, had been depicted in previous seasons, there was noticeably more of it in Season 4, and the characters seemed on the whole much less disturbed by it.

... In an interview with Charlie Rose, Kiefer Sutherland commented on the show's use of torture and how it relates to the recent controversies over government sanctioned torture. "Do I personally believe that the police or any of these other legal agencies that are working for this government should be entitled to interrogate people and do the things that I do on the show? No, I do not."

Well then, Kiefer ...

But to get back to the point of the thread: I think that to a truly thinking person, nuance is perceivable in the treatment of Muslims and the Muslim-terrorist connection; at least I hope it will be this season. I'm not persuaded that everyone watching the show is going to grasp the nuance. It can be watched on the level of a simple action flick, and people who do that aren't going to be having any of their nasty biases seriously challenged, from what one sees so far.

[Amused Musings]

13. Considering

that the enemy in the beginning is rarely the enemy in the end, I wish whining groups would stop complaining. Its a fun show to watch and the Jack Bauer character, notorious for torturing people to get information, has had karma bite him in the ass twice already. SO stay frosty, kids. Its just a TV show with so many plot twists that the arch villian will probably be some anglo-saxon white executivve and the we can all breath a sigh of relief.

Im half joking on that last part but still...

[TheCentepedeShoes]

21. My thoughts are on that

weasly guy in the President's office not being who he appears to be. He gives me the creeps.

[Roland99]

14. I was thinking the same thing. Yet another season of Muslim terrorists.

Why not create a season on whack-job Christian fundamentalists bombing abortion clinics and creating militias to kill immigrants.


Oh wait...that's reality.




Still though, "24" ROCKS!

[Purveyor]

19. Why not create a season on whack-job Christian fundamentalists bombing abortion clinics...

Indeed! Then listen to the howls...

[Igel]

17. CAIR is

less concerned with accuracy and truth--they don't know how this season is going to end, and have misrepresented the previous season--and more concerned with making sure Muslims always look good and any hint of dislike of Muslims is sufficiently and properly humiliated.

[wellst0nev0ter]

20. I'm Sure If The Terrorists Were Jews, The ADL Will Accept The Plot Point

Or if the terrorists were black gang members, the NAACP would accept it as well.

Now shoo.

[spoony]

23. So, again, we return to

the generic eastern European villains of nondescript ethnicities or ideologies. I guess since nothing in Hollywood is original anyway, they might as well use the same bad guys over and over.

[Karenina]

24. EEWWWWW!!!!

x(

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. Did Serbian-Americans protest the first season?

:shrug:

[YellowRubberDuckie]

25. MAybe they should try to get their fellow Muslims to stop BEING terrorists...

Then maybe they wouldn't be portrayed that way? :shrug:
They need to be very vocal about their disapproval of the actions of their fellow Muslims in the middle east who ARE terrorists, then people would stop thinking about them this way.
Duckie

[Purveyor]

26. The same "broad brush" could be said about the blacks and jews.

If the blacks quit being welfare leeches, maybe people would stop thinking of them being this way.

And if jews stopped being money grubbing 'bloodsuckers' maybe people would stop thinking of them being this way.

Same shoes, just different runners, eh?

[YellowRubberDuckie]

27. I didn't think people actually thought that way about jews anymore here, anyway.

:shrug:
My point is, they ARE the people doing the terrorizing, the extremist Muslims anyway, in the world right now.
Duckie