Muslim Protests
By dmajkc
@dmajkc (196)
United States
January 19, 2007 12:05pm CST
The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is protesting the way that Muslims are portrayed on
the series. Do you think they have a legitimate complaint?
Or, do you think the series producers and writers have a right to use the current political situation to dramatize
fictional events?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@jayperiod (870)
• United States
20 Jan 07
Not all of the Muslims on the show are terrorists. Some actually try to help out. The producers have a good balance.
I think that they are using current situations. Years ago when Russia was the "big" enemy, shows had Russian bad guys. I'm sure if we were facing a big threat from Canadians, they'd use Canadians.
You know what they say, though, "Me thinks they doth protest too much."
1 person likes this
@CyborgMC (173)
• United States
20 Jan 07
Exactly. I'm not even sure that the members of this group even take the time to watch 24 to understand this. Sounds to me like they just got a memo across their desk that said "Muslims being portrayed in the TV series '24' as Terrorist" and then they set off on their campaign.
@jayperiod (870)
• United States
20 Jan 07
I love that the producers aren't afraid to take some heat, either. Funny, everyone is so gung ho on "reality" TV, yet one show deals with modern day news events and it's time to bring out the gallows. That was one of the things that disappointed me in "The Sum Of All Fears." They changed the terrorists from the Muslims in the book to Nazis. 'Cause, you know, there are just so many Nazi groups out there causing problems!
@dmajkc (196)
• United States
20 Jan 07
What I find funny about this is when I was growing up the villian was the Russians.. It was alway the Russians.. Even on wrestling, the villians were the Russians.. BUT, I don't ever remember a Russian Organization complaining or protesting that they were the villians.
People are much too sensitive about everything now. It seems now that even watching a Fictional TV show is wrong if someone is offended.
Just out of spite the should somehow write CAIR into the script :D
@alexdiazgranados (678)
• United States
22 Jan 07
I don't think 24 is any worse (or any better) at portraying Muslims on the show than any other American TV series or film has done. It just proves writer-director Nicholas Meyer's point that all art, including movies, books, and TV shows, reflects the era in which it was created, thus a Tom Clancy novel written in 1984 would have a Cold War point of view and depict the Soviets/Russians as America's advesaries, whereas a 2003 novel by Clancy would have Islamic terrorists in the bad guy role. It wasn't that Clancy hated the Russians or Muslims...indeed, some of his best characters are of those nationalities/ethnic/religious groups.
Same thing applies here; I've seen a few really admirable Muslim characters in 24. If Muslims are portrayed as sometimes being extremists and terrorists, that's because some are. Not all, mind you. But some.
1 person likes this
@spiritwolf52 (2300)
•
22 Jan 07
It is a free country, freedom of speech, and all that. They are portraying what is going on in the world today. No one is saying all Muslims are bad. Just as no one is saying all Christians are bad. 24 tends to show what is possible and what is actually happening in this crazy world of ours.
@hinduzionkafir (3)
• United States
19 Jan 07
I think as we live in a free country, we should have the freedom of expression bar no circumstance. The whole point is that the majority of terrorists in the world today are Muslims and so if the series portrays a handful of Muslims as terorists there is nothing wrong with that. 24 in no way claims that all Muslims are terrorists. I think CAIR needs to stop throwing stones from a glass house-- many of CAIR's members have links to terrorists and CAIR has not condemned 99% of all Muslim terrorist attacks. Maybe we should protest against CAIR.
