Balls in Burkas

The wonderful columnist, Diana West, wrote a column, which we have excerpted, a little while ago. We saved it because it says so much about a source of our nausea and profound disappointment: the decline and fall of the television program 24.

24 is, by design, top heavy with action. This past season had the makings of being the very best season it has ever had, because of its willingness finally to take on fearlessly and fundamentally the biggest of current events: Muslim jihadists, as if there is any other kind.

Then CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations) stepped in to intimidate Fox and the creators of 24. Without a bang, in fact, without a whimper, 24 changed to politically correct pabulum. Fox put all of its balls in burkas.

At no time was Islam mentioned, nor jihad, nor any other reason why the terrorists were doing what they were doing, with a small exception. The head terrorist, Marwan, complained that the USA was oppressing his countrymen, who had sort of been identified as the Turks, instead of Saudi Arabians or Iranians, possibly Syrians. At the end, the genius terrorist mastermind admitted that his people and ours hate each other. That was it. Nothing got closer to the truth. No whys were ever mentioned.

The series ended like physical love unrequited, just stopping due to loss of interest. No one--but no one--on our side made any identifications and connections beyond these local-only terrorists. No one--but no one--mouthed anything suggesting the true nature, motivation, and goals of the terrorists. At the end, the head terrorist dies essentially by his own hand and Jack Bauer, the head counter-terrorism protagonist, escapes down railroad tracks, like a hobo, complete with bandana sack on a stick over his shoulder, because the USA government wants to turn him over to the communist Red Chinese.

It just petered out.

Diana West summed it and analyzed it nicely:

May 30, 2005


Phew -- that was close. The creators of "24," Fox Television's thriller-diller starring Kiefer Sutherland as counter-terror super-agent Jack Bauer, almost put together a compelling television series rooted in the onerous reality of the war on jihad terrorism. But thanks, apparently, to a few helpful suggestions from the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), they managed to steer clear of all political and historical relevance.

This couldn't have been easy. After all, CAIR didn't even come to their rescue until after the show's season had begun with a couple of episodes that featured a typical Islamic sleeper cell embedded in a typical American sleepy suburb. After these and other obvious blunders -- a terse exchange of "Allahu Akbar" between terrorists, for instance -- the creative types behind the hit series managed to get their act together and save the world for political correctness.

How? Two things: They laid down a suitably distracting Chinese subplot, and cast a bunch of Midwesterners, instead of Middle Easterners, to wear the key black hats. There was the ex-Air Force pilot -- obviously blond, obviously disgruntled -- who shot down Air Force One; a nefarious ex-marine; and a Patty-Hearst-like commando who just shot whatever.

By this week's season finale, Marwan, the head jihadist, had been comically stripped of all religious identity and motivation, and cloaked in a heavy disguise of moral equivalence. As in: You think we're evil and we think you're evil. This is pretty much what hero-Jack actually said to Marwan, the terror kingpin, who had just that day blown up a train, kidnapped the Secretary of Defense, sent multiple nuclear plants into meltdown and lobbed a nuclear warhead at Los Angeles. Oh well. Marwan was ultimately overshadowed by someone worse -- the president of the United States.

Still, maybe the creators of "24" deserve a medal, considering the total silence of their fellow movie- and television-makers when it comes to the war on jihadist terror. War, what war? Culture clash? What culture clash? Freedom -- what kind of freedom? Hollywood and the media may be "brave" and "bold" in fearlessly depicting sexuality, violence and the perversions therein, but they're cultural cowards when it comes to depicting, even mentioning, matters of war, Islam and jihad. Call it dhimmitude, Hollywood-style.

This is what moral uncertainty does to people. Doubtless the folks at Fox made a jillion "group-think" rationalizations to justify to themselves why they should dhimmi up to the bar and fall face first into a great, steaming pile of dhimmitude. Anyone can replicate the probable corporate excuses and rationales as well as I can, so I won't spell them out.

Keep in mind that 24 is very much dominated creatively by right-wingers. They even invited Rush Limbaugh to a casting and production session, including filming.

I disagree with Ms West that the producers of 24 deserve a medal because they have been less dhimmitudinous than the rest of Hollywood. Would you honor murders because they murdered fewer victims?

Had 24 told CAIR to go pound sand and changed nothing, then they would have deserved the highest acolades, IF they had also put on screen what needed to be said, identified, and condemned in the Islamic terrorists.