I have no problem with American Muslims looking out for their collective image: everyone else does it, why shoudn’t they?
And while I think the Council on American-Islam Relations’ sensitivity to the Islamic terrorist plot of this season’s 24 is a bit overwrought — um, is CAIR saying there aren’t any Islamic terrorists or sympathizers in the U.S.? there was a related incident on 9/11/01, I believe — I also have no problem with them requesting that their American Muslim PSA be shown on Fox to balance out the image a bit, since the overwhelming majority of American Muslims are neither terrorists nor sympathizers.
And I think it’s swell that Fox has agreed to make the spots available to their stations.
But what absolutely leaves me agape is the fact that their sunny little 60-second commercial with American Muslims talking about how damn American they are, includes NOT ONE American Muslim of Middle Eastern or Asian descent, not one. There is a white guy, a black guy, an Native American woman, and a Hispanic woman. Are they ashamed of their Middle Eastern and Asian coreligionists? Are they somehow less American? WTF?