Posted on 01/17/2005 3:11:22 PM PST by dennisw
Fox Cuts Out Anti-Muslim Scenes from “24”
“We thank Fox for the opportunity to address the Muslim community's concerns,” a CAIR spokeswoman said.
WASHINGTON, January 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Fox television network has decided to remove some stereotypical aspects about American Muslims from its action drama “24” thanks to immediate action from community leaders.
“We thank Fox for the opportunity to address the Muslim community's concerns and for the willingness of network officials to take those concerns seriously in an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation,” Rabiah Ahmed, Communications Coordinator of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a press release e-mailed to IslamOnline.net Saturday, January 15.
Following a January 12 meeting with representatives from CAIR, the largest US Muslim civil liberties advocacy group in the country, Fox officials promised that the popular series will be balanced in its portrayal of Muslims.
“There aren't any positive or even neutral portrayals of Muslims on TV,” the BBC quoting Ms Ahmed as regretting.
“When Muslims or Arabs are portrayed, it is always in a stereotypical way.”
Premiered on January 10, the drama portrays a Muslim family as a terrorist “sleeper cell,” who are plotting attacks inside the US.
A young man is seen helping his parents mastermind a plot to kill as many Americans by launching an attack on a commuter train.
The drama showed the mother poisoning her son's non-Muslim girlfriend because she poses a threat to their plans.
The US secretary of state is also seen taken hostage by the “Muslim terrorists.”
It climaxes with the defense secretary shown on an Internet video tape like those coming out of US-occupied Iraq.
Pro-Muslims Ad
Fox further decided to distribute a CAIR public service announcement (PSA) to network affiliates to be aired in proximity to “24.”
CAIR's 30 and 60-second PSA feature American Muslims of European, African-American, Hispanic, and Native American heritage.
Each person in the spots states how he/she and his/her family have served America and ends by saying, “I am an American Muslim.”
“What we are hoping to do is to try and mitigate the damages of the stereotypes because it can bring real-life consequences on American Muslims and their lives here,” Ms Ahmed said.
“When average Americans don't have any personal interaction with Muslims, whether it be at work or at school, they base their perception of Islam and Muslims from what they see on TV.”
CAIR urged State Department officials in a meeting on January 13 to issue a report on Islamophobia across the world.
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad presented in the meeting -- attended by Assistant Secretary Patricia de Stacy Harrison, Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher and Ambassador William Burns -- a proposal for cooperative efforts to challenge both Islamophobia and anti-Americanism.
A recent nation-wide poll, conducted by the Cornell University, showed that at least 44 percent of the Americans backs curbing Muslims’ civil rights and monitoring their places of worship.
A May 2004 report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded that Arab Americans and the Muslim community in the US have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Congratulations, Fox. Your willing acceptance of Dhimmitude just showed that the French have lost the title of World's Biggest Cowards.
Mmmmm...will TV soon decide not to show old movies about WWII because they're "anti-German" and "anti-Japanese"?
Turning Fox off right now.
Forgive me, but doesn't this sort of gut the premise of the series - concerning who abducted the SECDEF?
Who is 24 going to have responsible for the kidnapping and violence - the Teletubbies?
Disgusting cowardice.
Caving in to CAIR? Slime who didn't even denounce what happened on September 11?
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only white Christians can be stereotyped and get applauded for doing it.
ping
Just because this mooslim says this doesn't mean it is true.
Remember CAIR's view:
“Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”
This was the sentiment of Omar M. Ahmad, the Chairman of the Board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR, as told at an Islamic conference held in Freemont, California, in July of 1998.
Fox is pathetic. I hope the entertainment division is completely, 100% separate from the news. If not, I'm turning off Foxnews as well.
I wonder if we can bootlegged versions of the uncensored episodes....
This is like when Hollywood made the terrorists in "The Sum of All Fears" be from Russia, when they were Arabs in Clancey's book.
I hear that Jack Bauer is going to announce he's gay next season, and his always-in-trouble daughter is going to try to foment marxist revolution in Chile.
This kills the series.
Who wants to watch a neutered series?
CAIR is just another arm of the islamofacists. The entertainment industry is just too PC to realize they are just useful idiots.
Hey, I just started watching 24 this season. I want some serious muslim bashing or I'm gone.
How can we contact Fox to let them know our disgust.
If they have changed the show I for one will stop watching it.
And CAIR really cares about how Americans are portrayed
on Arab TV? I bet there is more ugly stereotyping over
there. We just never see or hear about it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.