WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A plate of spicy stuffed cabbage leaves and a cup of mint tea before him, Yosry Bekhiet sat down and turned on the television for a late dinner one recent Monday night. On the screen, he saw Muslim terrorists gain control of a nuclear plant, causing it to melt down.
One of the leaders of the plot shot his own wife and tried to shoot his son, fearing they would thwart his plans. (And this was after kidnapping the U.S. defense secretary and trying to behead him live on the Internet.)
Bekhiet was watching "24", the popular Fox action series starring Kiefer Sutherland as a government agent who battles bloodthirsty Islamic terrorists. The show has garnered high ratings, but also has angered Muslims across the nation over the way their community is portrayed.
"It's disgusting," Bekhiet said after watching an episode with an Associated Press reporter. "My own kids, if they see this show, they might hate me."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also had something to say about this:
Rabiah Ahmed, a CAIR official who attended the meeting with the network executives, said Muslims are concerned with how others view them, particularly in the mass media.
"For us it's a sensitive and urgent situation because we are facing a backlash after Sept. 11 and we need to defend our interests and our image. We understand that it's entertainment and fiction. Our concern is that others may not."
One of the goals of good drama is to present believable situations. Right now, the majority of terrorism occurring in the world is being perpetrated by Muslim extremists. To be sure, there have been terrorists who were not Muslims; the IRA is a prime example. But, at this time, it's pretty much all Muslims, all the time, at least when it comes to terrorism that targets the United States and its allies.
The producers of the 2002 movie "The Sum of All Fears" had to deal with this issue. From the trivia page at IMDB:
The movie changed the villains from Islamic extremists (in the novel) to Neo-Nazis. This was done to increase realism because before the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001, Islamic extremists were considered unable to carry out intensive terrorist act on US soil. After 9/11 the production staff had to review how to present the movie to the public.
I think that the decision was at least partly motivated by a desire not to upset Muslims.
The thing is that it's realistic to portray Islamic terrorists in television shows and movies that are being made at this time. Getting mad because someone is portraying realistic events is just trying to shift the blame elsewhere. It's not Fox's fault that Muslims are committing terrorism; it's the fault of those Muslims who are actually doing it. Instead of getting mad at Fox, American Muslims and CAIR should be getting mad at the terrorists themselves for giving all Muslims a bad name. Start denouncing terror unequivocally and distance yourself from those organizations who are in any way involved with it. Unless you start by doing that, your protests ring hollow.
And just to note, I know that most Muslims living in America are peaceful and do not want to kill anyone. For that matter, several of the people that work at my company are Muslims and they're perfectly friendly and peace-loving. I'm sure that they don't support terrorism any more than I do. The problem, as I see it, is with prominent Muslims and Muslim organizations who are not making it very clear that they abhor terrorism. They may feel that way, but for whatever reason they are not speaking out, at least not unequivocally. Some are, but not enough.
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