THE CAIR WHINE
CAIR spokesperson complaining about portrayal of Muslims on 24
The sound is grating to the ears. Whenever there is the slightest opportunity to piggyback a grievance - either real or imagined - on a story that will guarantee a few precious lines of copy in newspapers or a few seconds of face time on television, the Council on American Islamic Relations will turn on the whine and, like a fingernail being drawn slowly across the surface of a blackboard, draw attention to themselves in the most excruciating manner possible.
Today’s torture is the result of the realistic portrayal of Muslim terrorists on Fox’s action series 24. The show has been a favorite target for the group. They pressured the producers to actually change the story line two seasons ago because of characters who they considered were not truly representational of Arabs. The plot that season centered around Jack Bauer’s most evil foe in the history of the series. Marwan was clever, resourceful, brilliant, dedicated, and a fanatical jihadist. This exchange between Bauer and Marwan sums up both sides of the war we are fighting with the jihadis brilliantly.
Marwan is in custody but a cruise missile has been launched in the Midwest and is headed for Los Angeles. In order to get the frequency so that we can destroy the bird, which is just minutes from impact, the President has instructed Jack to make a deal with the terrorist:
Jack: You and I both know all I want to do right now is kill you. But I have my orders. You win. I’ve been instructed to ask you what you want.
Marwan: What I want is already happening.
Jack: The death and destruction is a means to an end, Why don’t we just skip to the end?
Marwan: To the end?
Jack: Everything you did today you did for a reason, for your people. What do you want to change?
Marwan: I have no desire to have a political discussion with you..
Jack: You tell me where the missile is headed, you help me stop it and I’ll guarantee you’ll talk to the President. Believe me, he’ll have no choice but to listen. You have a chance to get what you want.
Marwan: I already have agent Bauer. After this day, elected officials and the American people will know that they can’t intervene in our lives, in our countries with impunity. Besides, your President sees me in only one dimension – evil.
Jack: As you see us?
Marwan: Yes…and vulnerable.
You won’t find a Muslim talking like that anywhere else on television. Which, of course, is why CAIR is desperate to stifle it. And with this year’s story line including the detonation of a nuclear weapon in Los Angeles by other fanatical Muslims, the whine has reached new levels of agonizing discomfort:
Being portrayed again as the heartless wrongdoers has drawn renewed protests from Muslim groups, including one that had a meeting with Fox executives two years ago over the issue.
“The overwhelming impression you get is fear and hatred for Muslims,” said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. She said Thursday she was distressed by this season’s premiere. “After watching that show, I was afraid to go to the grocery store because I wasn’t sure the person next to me would be able to differentiate between fiction and reality.”
Who is it that can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality?
This isn’t even hypersensitivity to slight. It is out and out paranoia. Anyone who is afraid to go to a grocery store in the Washington, D.C. area because they are scared of being attacked is a loon, pure and simple.
In fact, why not just cut to the chase and call the spokesperson a liar?
She might have a point if there was some kind of crime spree directed against American Muslims. But one of the least reported facts in the aftermath of 9/11 was the remarkably low number of “hate crimes” directed against Arabs.
Since 9/11 the Justice Department has investigated 750 “incidents†involving not just Arabs, but others who appear to be of middle eastern origin. Out of all those incidents, federal charges have been brought against just 35 individuals. They’ve also assisted local prosecutors with another 150 cases.
This hardly represents an epidemic of hate directed against Arabs. But you’d never know it listening to the carefully choreographed cries of outrage from CAIR and other Muslim groups:
Watching the show’s characters talk about detonating a nuclear weapon a few blocks from where she works unnerved Sireen Sawaf, an official with the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, and a self-described “huge `24′ fan.”
“It’s a great show, and I do realize it’s a multidimensional show that portrays extreme situations,” she said. “They have gone out of their way to have non-Muslim terror cells.
“But I’m concerned about the image it ingrains in the minds of the American public and the American government, particularly when you have anti-Muslim statements spewing from the mouths of government officials.”
Sohail Mohammed, a New Jersey immigration lawyer who represented scores of detainees caught up in the post Sept. 11, 2001 dragnet, watched the episode depicting the nuclear attack with an Associated Press reporter.
“I was shocked,” he said. “Somewhere, some lunatic out there watching this will do something to an innocent American Muslim because he believes what he saw on TV.”
Are you kidding me? First, Ms. Sawaf’s belief that the way Muslims are portrayed on 24 will have an affect on government officials? And then the lawyer who makes an outrageous statement about a Muslim being attacked without one shred of evidence that such a crime has ever been perpetrated in the past as a result of any TV show much less 24?
This is grievance mongering at its worst. And the most vile practitioner of it is CAIR whose over the top response to any and all perceived slights actually overshadows the grievance itself. It makes one wish that they would be half as condemnatory about terrorist attacks against innocents as they are about being singled out at airports for security checks or having people cast uneasy glances in their direction on city streets.
Goodness knows that there is plenty of bigotry hurled against Muslim Americans. America is a big country with a lot of ignorant people whose fear of those who are different manifests itself in many hurtful ways. And if the grievance mongers at CAIR would confine themselves to combating this kind of ignorance and hate, then they would be doing themselves and the nation a favor.
But that’s not the way the oppressed minority game is played in America today. If there is no grievance, then manufacture one. Liberal guilt and a willing media will do the rest.
Judging by this statement, Fox Network appears ready to resist pressure this time around to change the story line of 24:
In a written statement issued late Wednesday night, the network said it has not singled out any ethnic or religious group for blame in creating its characters.
“24 is a heightened drama about anti-terrorism,” the statement read. “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.”
Unbelievable that a major television network finds it necessary to point out that they’ve tried to spread the villains around among a variety of races and ethnicities. Kind of makes you wonder who might be keeping score?
[...] Original post by Rick Moran and software by Elliott Back [...]
Pingback by THE CAIR WHINE at Conservative Times--Republican GOP news source. — 1/19/2007 @ 6:25 pm
Relax, It Is Just A TV Show
Muslims are protesting being portrayed as terrorists on 24.
You know what I think? I think these people need to grow up and get over themselves.
I am a Christian that believes The Bible is the true word of Almighty God.
I am a Southerner who bel…
Trackback by Simply Kimberly | Blog — 1/19/2007 @ 6:49 pm
Jews in this country are 7 times more likely to be victims of hate crimes than Muslims according to the FBI. The same is true in Europe. Hate crimes against Jews are rising in Europe along with the Muslim population.
Comment by bubbaj — 1/19/2007 @ 8:21 pm
If innocent Muslims are so concerned about the potential repercussions that the portrayal on television of terrorist acts of radical Muslims might have against them, wouldn’t you think they’d be a little more active in trying to stop the radical Muslims from their terror than in trying to stop a TV show from portraying it?
Comment by Gordon Jefferson — 1/20/2007 @ 7:07 am
[...] Update # 2: And there’s more from Rick Moran, including this classic I wish I’d said it response to the woman afraid to go to the grocery store: Who is it that can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality? [...]
Pingback by Below The Beltway » Blog Archive » It’s A Television Show People — 1/20/2007 @ 7:43 am
Since even the most advanced cruise missiles available top out at a range of 3,000 km (http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/cm/index.html), wouldn’t it have been much less injurious to the sensibilities of Arabs everywhere to just allow this flying agent of evil to run out of fuel and fall harmlessly into the desert?
Comment by William Tanner — 1/20/2007 @ 7:46 am
I can only imagine the outcry on this website if it were bible thumping evangelicals who were being rounded up and being put into camps. Stop being afraid and open up your eyes–the world is a big place and not colored just vanilla!
http://www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com
Comment by MinorRipper — 1/20/2007 @ 10:03 am
[...] THE CAIR WHINE - It is a TV show for crying out loud… [...]
Pingback by Fly At Night » Blog Archive » In Search of Global Warming — 1/20/2007 @ 10:19 am
Ripper:
The fact that I’m an atheist means I could give a shit about religion. It’s the culture of greivance mongering that concerns me.
And Christians aren’t blowing up LA in 24: Muslims are.
Comment by Rick Moran — 1/20/2007 @ 12:07 pm
Sam Brownback is in! He just announced he’s running for President.
Thank God. For a while there I thought that the only people running for our nomination were democrats.
Comment by Kansas Kewtie — 1/20/2007 @ 2:54 pm
Rick? Is that really you Rick?
Oh my God!!
Comment by Kansas Kewtie — 1/21/2007 @ 11:58 pm
DONE!
And you are now banned from my blog for being such a dumb ass. Read the whole thing before you go around insulting people for nothing. I am not bigoted in the slightest little bit. Why don’t you go hang around DU. You would fit in so well.
Ta Ta Asshat!
Comment by Simpl Kimberly — 1/22/2007 @ 12:52 am
You can only wonder what this is all about.
Comment by William Tanner — 1/22/2007 @ 6:06 am
Whoever you are using my name, I am reporting you to your internet service provider and will file a complaint.
I have saved every comment you’ve made using my name.
Why not do us all a favor and go away.
Like a child in need of attention - check that, a drama queen - you can’t resist trying to defeat my means of blocking you. Very well. If that’s the way you want it, that’s the way its going to be.
Comment by Rick Moran — 1/22/2007 @ 7:44 am
Web Reconnaissance for 01/22/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
Trackback by The Thunder Run — 1/22/2007 @ 11:19 am