‘The Muslims Are Coming! The Muslims Are Coming!’

By Tamadhur Al-Aqeel

I just happened to be watching the season premier of Fox Television's popular show, "24." I think they should change the name to "The Muslims are coming! The Muslims are coming!" Kiefer Sutherland plays the hero, saving and protecting his girlfriend—who represents all of America—from the Muslim terrorists. Each hour in Kiefer's world is a lesson in rugged individualism, as he picks up clues, is begrudgingly envied by his colleagues, and shoots suspects in the leg to get them to talk. Move over, Abu Ghraib victims. Your tormentors had nothing on Kiefer. He uses live ammunition.

Why am I watching this show? I confess that I was drawn in by the hype, and the camera angles, and Kiefer's stubbly face and dirty blond hair, styled to look both coifed and in need of a shampoo. He's scruffy, he's mean, and thank God he's on "our" side.

Oh, here comes the head Arab terror guy. (Or is he the head Iranian Muslim guy? Gosh, so hard to tell these Arabs/Muslims apart. But if you're a TV show on Fox, there's no need to distinguish!) He slaps his son around. He has a big nose and an accent. His teenage son is in love with a white American girl. This is a way for the viewers to be able to tell the difference between a "good" Arab/Muslim, and a "bad" Arab/Muslim. Head terrorist guy bullies his son into delivering a briefcase that will be used to—well, we don't know yet, but to potentially destroy the world. But the son's heart isn't in terrorism; he's too busy thinking about the babe with the freckles.

"24" conjures an image of Muslims and Arabs in this country as leather wearing, squinting, bad parents who are out to get you. But let me paint another picture.

The founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Candice Lightner, is an Arab American. Radio personality Casey Kasem, entertainer Danny Thomas, former US Senator James Abouresk, singer and American Idol judge, Paula Abdul-all Arab-Americans. And Me. I'm Arab-American… and I'm not out to get you.

Kahlil Gibran, who wrote the philosophical and poetic "The Prophet," was an Arab. "The Prophet" was published in 1926. Gibran's verses have been included in many a wedding ceremony in the US: "Love one another, but make not a bond of love:/Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."

But I think this quote from Gibran's "The Prophet" sums up the current climate fingering the supposed outsider: "Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world." Consider this, that most of the terrorist acts committed in the United States were perpetrated by white Americans. Here's a partial list: Timothy McVeigh (bombed the Oklahoma City Federal building), Ted Kaczynski (also known as the Unabomber), Eric Rudolph (who planted the bombs at the Olympic Games in Atlanta). While we're at it, let's look at the KKK. I would call the KKK a terrorist organization--and they don't let Muslims join. What if Al-Jazeera produced a show in which most of the white characters were crazed fanatics. Would you watch?

Mothers Against Drunk Driving had a popular campaign that went like this: Friends don't let friends drive drunk. May I suggest: friends don't let friends watch "24." Please, viewers of "24", turn it off. The Arabs are not coming. The Muslims are not coming. We're already here. And we've been here a long time.

Tamadhur Al-Aqeel is a playwright living in Los Angeles.