Muslims criticise '24'

Muslims groups are once again criticising the hit Fox drama '24' for casting Islamic terrorists as the villians for Season 6. Two years ago, they protested when the plot cast them as the villains who launched a stolen nuclear missile in an attack on America.

The whining Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) held a conference call with Fox executives to protest the current plot line and request more positive portrayals of Muslims on the show.

Spokewoman for CAIR, Rabiah Ahmed, stated: "The overwhelming impression you get is fear and hatred for Muslims."

The Fox network released a statement:

"24 is a heightened drama about anti-terrorism. After five seasons, the audience clearly understands this, and realizes that any individual, family, or group (ethnic or otherwise) that engages in violence is not meant to be typical."

"Over the past several seasons, the villains have included shadowy Anglo businessmen, Baltic Europeans, Germans, Russians, Islamic fundamentalists, and even the (Anglo-American) president of the United States," the network said. "The show has made a concerted effort to show ethnic, religious and political groups as multidimensional, and political issues are debated from multiple viewpoints."

Engy Abdelkader, a member of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee from Howell, New Jersey, launched a campaign Wednesday to encourage Muslims offended by the program to complain to Fox.

"I found the portrayal of American Muslims to be pretty horrendous," she said. "It was denigrating from beginning to end. This is one of the most popular programs on television today. It's pretty distressing."

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Obviously, since the Chinese kidnapped Jack Bauer at the end of last season, everyone should be pissed off at anyone of Chinese descent for putting him in prison for 2 years.

CAIR tell us that the show makes repeated links between Muslims and terrorism. A sign of paranoia? It would seem that '24' did not get that many complaints when other villians such as Germans, Russians, Europeans, Anglo businessmen, and the corrupt U.S. president were used.

Soon, CAIR will tell us to ban movies such as "Executive Decision," "True Lies," from movie rental stores. Remember Tom Clancy's novel, Sum of All Fears, the villians were actually Muslim fundamentalists, not disaffected Russian scientists and a former Nazi Austrian businessman.

If people are reacting because they saw it on '24' it goes to show that they need help in trying to distinguish between fiction and reality.