The depiction of American Muslim terrorists in Fox's hit series 24 has elicited criticism from Muslims and has raised broader concerns regarding media stereotyping in general, both nationwide and in Athens.
While the series, now in its fourth season, has depicted Muslim terrorists in the past, this year's storyline involving a suburban, middle-class Muslim family that doubles as a terrorist sleeper cell has drawn additional concern from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group.
According a press release on its Web site (www.cair-net.org), the council was concerned that the portrayal of the family as a terrorist 'sleeper cell' may cast a shadow of suspicion over ordinary American Muslims and could increase Islamophobic stereotyping and bias.
Dr. Savas Kaya, adviser for the Muslim Student Association and assistant professor in the College of Engineering, shared similar sentiments to those on the CAIR Web site.
When you have bombings and shootings in suburban America
terrorizing suburban America you have a situation that really scares people. This is why ('24') is interestingly dangerous: because it is making a comfortable part of America really anxious.
That anxiety, Kaya explained, could be felt in Athens.
You are essentially taking an unthreatening comfortable section of society and polarizing them
he said. It can create anxiety anywhere
even places as comfortable as Athens.
Heather Irwin, a Muslim graduate student at Ohio University, agrees and thinks the use of a family terrorist cell was an easy way out for the show's writers.
I think that it's a little too easy to pick a Muslim family for the plot of something of this nature
she said. You could have used pretty much any other setting and have had the same story line.
The series' terrorism-driven plot also raises questions about Muslim stereotypes in America after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Usame Tunagur, an OU graduate student who moved to America from Turkey in 1996, explained that the events of Sept. 11 and the foreign policy that followed changed perceptions of Muslims in the media.
The perception of the stereotypes pre-and post-9/11 has been pretty different
he said. The line between truth and mediated images have been very blurred.
Media outlets tend to focus on radical groups and ignore moderate Muslim voices, Irwin said.
These perceptions could lead to discrimination in Athens. While Muslims interviewed for this article generally agreed that such instances are few and far between, the problem still exists.
Kaya didn't personally experience any discrimination as a result of stereotyping, but he mentioned a few isolated instances of verbal abuse and threatening letters towards various Muslims.
Irwin has had only a few encounters with stereotyping as well.
I've seen very little [stereotyping] in Athens in my own experiences
she said, but later admitted that people often look at her as if she was from another planet when she wears her headscarf.
For Irwin, a more pressing concern is the overall lack of knowledge in Athens.
I'm always amazed by how little the people in Athens -even the more educated and tolerant people in Athens -know almost nothing about Islam or about what it's like to be Muslim
she said.
In an attempt to educate OU students about Islam, many suggestions have been given.
The Muslim Student Association has hosted various open houses throughout the year to educate students, Kaya said.
Tunagur suggested personal interaction to educate students and fight stereotypes.
If you have friends coming from an Islamic or Muslim background
after you get to know these people
you realize that they're just regular people like you and I. That helps to break the stereotype.
Fox, under pressure from CAIR and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, has played a part in dissolving stereotypes as well. After meeting with both groups, it agreed to air a disclaimer during the 24 telecast. Read by Kiefer Sutherland, who plays the series' main character, Jack Bauer, the disclaimer explained that the American Muslim community stands firmly beside their fellow Americans in denouncing and resisting terrorism in every form.
Also, the series recently included a storyline in which two American Muslim civilians willingly engaged in a violent gunfight to halt a terrorist attack.
