Friday 4 February 2005

For those who CAIR

Via Cumudgeon's Corner, a story about people who protesteth too much.
Henry Ford would sell you a car in any color you wanted, as long as it was black, and network TV can depict terrorists of any kind, as long as they aren't Muslim. Fox TV's 24 is a drama about a terrorist hunter, Jack Bauer. During the show's lifetime, Bauer has gone up against Bosnian terrorists, German terrorists, South American terrorists, and terrorists from a shadowy and evil Halliburton-like conglomerate. But recently 24 has gotten into hot water by featuring Muslim terrorists ; or at least terrorists who look Middle Eastern. But while no Bosnian, German, South American or Halliburton exec contacted the network to complain about the way they were portrayed on the show, when Fox ventured into Islamic terror territory the network immediately aroused the ire of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

It is astounding that anyone would be offended by a fictionalized portrayal of the terrorist group that actually has perpetrated the largest terror attack, or attack of any kind, on American soil, but these are confused times.
[...]
Meanwhile, IslamOnline, a popular Muslim news portal run from Qatar, had its own ideas as to who was behind 24's introduction of Muslim terrorists. Fox Entertainment Group, it said, was "part of Jewish billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation." It asserted that 24's new plot direction was "hailed by Jewish groups and lobbyists as a bid to reveal Muslims' 'true nature,' " and noted that "Jewish writer Daniel Pipes wrote in the Israeli Jerusalem Post and the American New York Post hoping Fox would not bow to Muslim objections on the series."

IslamOnline dropped "Jewish" from in front of "billionaire Rupert Murdoch" when informed that Murdoch is not, in fact, Jewish,
Frankly, I'm surprised. They never let facts get in the way of a good "Zionist Conspiracy" story before.
...but the implication of the article is still clear: 24's introduction of Muslim terrorist characters was yet another in a long line of Jewish conspiracies.
Actually, I think the implication is that IslamOnLine runs virulently and poisonously anti-semitic rubbish. The New Improved (with 100% less Jewish Billionaires) article is as described. For equality of fact-checking, there's the Daniel Pipes article.

I guess I've just grown a little impatient with many vociferous Muslims. The whiners, the "it's all the fault of the JOOS" chorus. I've made allowances for the fact that if you've been taught since early childhood that a certain race are "Pigs and Monkeys", some of it will rub off, even if you're educated and cosmopolitan. God knows it took long enough in the American South, and anti-Black hysteria is still not totally extinct there. Racial prejudice is like having a loathsome disease though, it's something you try to cure, and hide if you can't cure it. Too often the most vociferous are people who should know better, and I'm getting a little antsy about it. If they keep this up long enough, soon people will believe that most Muslims (rather than a minority) are Racist bigots. Even me. Not because I'm ignorant (the usual cause of such Racism), but because I know them too well.

But then I remember the many Iraqis who I've corresponded with, and whose blogs I've read, and my rationality is restored. Somewhat, anyway. I'll treat individuals as individuals, not as instantiations of the class "Muslim", "Jew" or "Mongolian". And Racist Bigots as Racist Bigots, be they Muslim, Mongolian or Martian for that matter.


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