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WDAF TV4 - January 19, 2005
Muslim leaders worry Fox TV show could lead to violence
Kansas City, MO-- Someone spray-painted foul language on a northland house aimed at the Muslim owner. "It was just spray paint, but next time it could be something worse," said Mahnaz Shabbir, President of the Heartland Muslim Council.
"There shouldn't be any reason for anyone to take out a hateful crime, even if it's just kids. They should be educated to know that this is wrong."
On Monday's Fox drama "24", a Muslim mother poisoned her son's non-Muslim girlfriend because she posed a threat to the terror cell's plans.
Shabbir says episodes like that perpetuate the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists. "It doesn't help when we have a national show that continues to portray a stereotype towards us. That doesn't help us. It's like you take one step forward and this show takes us five steps backwards."
Shabbir says viewers should remember not everything they see on TV is reality. "What we want is for people to understand it's just a television show. It's not about reality. It's a drama. It's fiction." But for one northland family, the hate has become a harsh reality.
http://www.wdaftv.com/fullstory.asp?ID=7323
Newsweek - Jan. 31 2005 issue
Muslims: Making Enemies
By Lorraine Ali and Ramin Setoodeh
Fox's hit series "24" kicks off its fourth season with a disturbing story line: a seemingly normal, suburban American Muslim family is actually a sleeper terrorist cell bent on destroying Western society. The mother, played by Oscar-nominated Shohreh Aghdashloo, is so evil she kills her son's cute blond girlfriend to make sure she doesn't blow the family's cover.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) protested the show and eventually met with the network. Fox called the meeting "educational and informative," and released this statement: "We are providing CAIR's PSAs [public-service announcements] to the affiliates. It is their decision whether or not to run them." In case you never see them, the 30- and 60-second spots include the line, "Muslims are part of the fabric of this great country."
Critics, like author Jack Shaheen who catalogs Arab and Muslim images in the U.S. media, worry that "24" represents a new trend, where even the Muslim or Arab next door is a potential threat.
Consider the WWE's newest bad guy, Muhammad Hassan, an Arab-American: he wears Arab garb in the ring and vows revenge for post-9/11 discrimination as the audience chants, "U.S.A.!"
Shaheen says, "To present a truly balanced image, why don't Fox and other networks create some Arab or Muslim characters who aren't building bombs? Maybe they're just an everyday family, like the Cosbys."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6857230/site/newsweek/
Media Monitors - 21 January 2005
Mis-Defining Terrorism
By John Janney
… How could Americans even think of a white, Christian man parking his explosive-packed van in front of the White House as being a terrorist? TV shows like Fox's '24' constantly remind America to believe that the only terrorism is so-called Islamic Terrorism. According to a recent article published in the Atlantic Journal Constitution, even the show's Iranian-born actress, Shohreh Aghdashloo, erroneously claims that 'Although not all the Muslims are terrorists, unfortunately most terrorists are Muslims.' With the fear-industry hard at work preaching hate against Muslims by constantly painting them as America's enemy, it is no surprise this actress holds such a distorted view.
Perhaps such warped views would straighten-out if they took into consideration the killing of 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians and the torturing of countless innocent Muslims in American concentration camps and through the policy of 'extraordinary rendition'. Maybe such views should also consider the support our government gives to ruthless regimes that indiscriminately slaughter their own people and those under their occupation just so free access to cheap material and labor resources remain open to American corporations.
But we are not to consider that terrorism or even support for terrorism. It is simply collateral damage incurred while gallantly defending America and entertainment created so you will continue to buy soda pop, supplements, perfumes, prayer cloths and Armageddon novels.
So, who or what defines terrorism? Apparently, that is a luxury enjoyed by those wielding enough media and military power to throw the label around and to make it stick - but never dare dilute it with facts.
http://mobile.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/12771/
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