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?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Al Barger
These American Muslims would do more to impress me if they focused their attention more on helping to root out their own bad element rather than howling about the rest of us noticing that there is one.
It's the handful of jerks among them that makes them all look bad, not Fox television.
2 - Eric Olsen
very well put, Al
3 - Jim Carruthers
So, your complaint about a PSA to dispel racist and ethnic stereotypes is that it doesn't indulge in ethnic and racist stereotypes.
Yep, you need to watch more teevee.
4 - Eric Olsen
the point of the commercial seems to be that Muslims are a "part of the American fabric," which I never doubted in the first place, but if the vast majority of American Muslims are of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent, isn't it a bit disingenuous for them to have been excluded from teh "fabric"?
5 - spiderleaf
These American Muslims would do more to impress me if they focused their attention more on helping to root out their own bad element rather than howling about the rest of us noticing that there is one.
It's the handful of jerks among them that makes them all look bad, not Fox television.
The shoe on the other foot test --
These American Conservatives would do more to impress me if they focused their attention more on helping to root out their own bad element rather than howling about the rest of us noticing that there is one (i.e. The Nation, NYT, etc.).
It's the handful of jerks among them that makes them all look bad, not The Daily Show. (see Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Gonzales, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Kissinger, Nixon, etc.)
6 - RJ
So, you're equating Islamic terrorists with obnoxious right-wingers? Cute...
7 - andy marsh
spiderleaf - that statement you made is straight up BULLSHIT! American Conservatives didn't blow up 3000 people on 9/11! None of those people that you mention, Coulter, Limbaugh, O'Reilly ever blew anything up! You're argument is, as the editor of the Daily Bugle would say, "MEGA CRAP!"
8 - Jim Carruthers
Eric, I can't wait to hear your version of Lenny Bruce's "How to Relax Your Colored Friends at Parties", updated with your current stereotypes.
Since when are ethnicity and religion welded to each other? Only when the glue of vast and willful ignorance is applied.
9 - spiderleaf
No, but they all supported the invasion of Iraq (based on lies) and the torture of innocent until proven guilty Muslims.
Why are you asking an entire population to apologize for people who they had nothing to do with creating?
Should we all have to constantly apologize for the KKK? Or for Timothy McVeigh? It's stupid, faulty logic.
And btw - Ann Coulter advocated invading countries and converting leaders to Christianity... where were all of the conservative condemnations? She advocates in a best selling book that the way to talk to liberals is with a baseball bat... I would like an apology from every single person who bought or read that book.
I am not saying Rush Limbaugh killed 3,000 Americans, but neither did an Iman in L.A... so why should he have to apologize?
10 - bhw
Calm down, boys. Spiderleaf was merely applying Al's bizarre to a different situation.
Al, American Muslims have no such "own bad element" to root out in the first place. That's just a ridiculous concept. The people who fly planes into buidlings have nothing to do with American Muslims, and vice versa. American Muslims are no more responsible for doing something about Islamic terrorists than Irish Americans are/were for doing something about the IRA.
11 - bhw
spider, you and I were apparently writing at the same time....
12 - spiderleaf
merci bhw... at least someone got where I was going... ;)
13 - RJ
JC:
Most of the Muslims in the world are either Arab or Asian. This is true in the US as well.
So why not show those folks in the ad?
14 - Al Barger
Right wingers criticize other right wingers all the time, beyond which you're sticking together all kinds of people with very different viewpoints, some of whom hardly seem identifable as "conservatives." What exactly was "conservative" about Richard Nixon?
15 - Dave Nalle
Ok, we can all agree Ann Coulter is a nutter even most of the conservatives among us. But give O'Reilly a break. If it weren't for the fact that he's a pro-life Catholic he'd be a liberal.
What I really want to know is where they found an American Indian muslim. That's just goofy. What's next, Eskimo Voodoo Houngans? Hey, that would be a cool band name.
Dave
16 - Nick Jones
I find myself bemused that I agree with RJ on anything, but really, couldn't they find even one Muslim from the Middle East or Asia, someone who had fled the Taliban's or Saddam Hussein's regimes? (Grammar?) Maybe they were going for the 'people just like us' look - which I think is a misstep, if not a serious mistake.
17 - Al Barger
BHW, the radical Turkish family in 24 are posited as having been here for four years. I don't have a chart right in front of me, but it seems that most of the 9/11 attackers had been in the US for several years.
The IRA were making attacks in Ireland, not the US. Thus there would be little reason to be concerned about American Irish harboring or facilitating IRA.
We have, in fact, busted numerous Muslims in the US plotting terrorist attacks. This handful of people don't constitute a very large portion of the Muslim or Arab population in the US, but there they are. They're not Episcopalian Englishmen nor African tribesmen. Theoretically, terrorists COULD come from anywhere, but in reality they mostly come from one identifiable cultural background: Islam.
Just the facts, ma'am.
18 - spiderleaf
and most of the serial killers (including McVeigh) and Klansmen in the US were Christians. How would you feel about having to constantly defend your culture/ religion because of a few nutcases?
and btw - I do agree it's odd they didn't choose overtly recognizable members of the faith for the commercial.
19 - Eric Olsen
I'm glad we can agree it was at least odd
picture it another way: Republicans make an ad to show they are just regular Americans like the rest of us, and they feature a sihk guy, a Hawaiian hula girl, an elderly black man, and a homeless woman of Guatamalan descent. Are you telling me Frank Rich wouldn't shit out a red hot screed about Republican "misrepresentation"?
20 - Jim Carruthers
So, you'd feel better if Fox had Tariq Aziz in the PSA. He's Middle Eastern, well known, well spoken, has a diplomatic appearance, from Iraq, and so on.
(oh, wait, he's Catholic)
But what can I expect from Eric from Ohio, who knows what bottled water means.
And speaking of Guatemala, what about Rios Montt, who is a Presbyterian fundamentalist, and is responsible for some of America's worst atrocities. And is now being put back in power by the US government.
And to put it in perspective, RJ, G.W. Bush is directly and personally responsible in a conspiracy to torture and murder over 150 people as governor of Texas. Which puts him on a per capita basis with the Saudi 9/11 hijackers.
21 - Dave Nalle
Jim, you never fail to amuse. If I could take you seriously I'd try to hook you up with some medication for the delusional paranoia, but I know you're just kidding.
Dave
22 - bhw
BHW, the radical Turkish family in 24 are posited as having been here for four years.
Excuse me, but you wouldn't be using a tee-vee show as the basis for your logic, would you? Wow.
I don't have a chart right in front of me, but it seems that most of the 9/11 attackers had been in the US for several years.
And had been blending right in with the rest of us, specifically trying NOT to be "rootable."
We have, in fact, busted numerous Muslims in the US plotting terrorist attacks.
And yet we have convicted none even with all the expanded powers of the Patriot Act. So what would you have the average American Muslim do that the full force of the US government can't do?
This handful of people don't constitute a very large portion of the Muslim or Arab population in the US, but there they are.
There are criminals in the US who share my heritage, Al. There must have been at least one criminal who attended my church, which was a large parish. Was it my responsibility to buy an oversized magnifying glass and play junior detective to root out the criminals who shared my background?
They're not Episcopalian Englishmen nor African tribesmen. Theoretically, terrorists COULD come from anywhere, but in reality they mostly come from one identifiable cultural background: Islam.
But that doesn't make American Muslims more responsible for doing anything about them than the rest of us are. I love how the "accept responsibility for your own actions" talk flies out the window when it's convenient.
What exactly should the Muslim-American community be doing to root out these terrorists, Al? Please be specific.
23 - Eric Olsen
bhw, the whole thing was in response to a TV show - that's kind of the point.
What should the American muslim community be doing? Speaking out vociferously and unambiguously against jihad, against anti-Americanism, against theocracy. Do what any other religion would be expected to do if terror were committed in its name. Do you think the American Lutherans wouldn't trip all over each other making the strongest possible condemnations if a radical pack of bachelor Norwegian farmers terrorized Lake Wobegone in the name of Martin Luther?
And trying to marginalize or minimize this issue doesn't work either: look at the case of Imam Damra here in Cleveland; and more importantly, look at the at least tacit approval of his actions by the plurality of his congregation who didn't want to kick him out. THIS is the kind of ambivalence and ambiguity that bolsters Al's original statement.
24 - Mark Edward Manning
The FOX network to air pro-Muslim PSA? Hmmm, kind of takes the sails right out of the "Fox is extremely Right-wing" argument.
25 - spiderleaf
oh please - airing a commercial (which they are paid for) does not suddenly make the rabid dogs of O'Lielly and Hannity "fair and balanced".
The Nation accepts ads from right-wing organizations -- I assume this magazine will no longer be called "extremely left wing"?
Content and commercials are two separate issues.