This is a very touchy subject - how the Muslim faith is portrayed in media and just in general. I had the remarkable pleasure of attending a lecture a few weeks back about women in the Islamic faith. To say it was awesome would be an understatement. The lecture was delivered by a highly educated German-Iranian woman and it was a treat to listen to her. Not only did she make incredibly good points about women's rights in Islam but also about how Muslims are presented in media.
The point that struck me most was when she said that whenever something bad happens in Middle-Eastern countries, be it violence, terrorism, women's rights being infringed upon and other issues, the Islamic faith is always said to be the cause. She said it was never the cause when bad things happened in other parts of the world. Such as when the terrible domestic terrorism attack happened in Norway July 22nd 2011 (peace be unto the victims) it was stated that Breivik was a Christian, yet no one blamed his faith as the basis of his actions. If this had happened in a Muslim country, the Islamic faith would have been blamed.
It is striking how easily everything that takes place in the Middle East is is blamed upon the Islamic faith. Things are so much more complicated than that. Faith is a big part of people's lives all over the world and drives them to action, both good and bad. In America, abortion clinics are bombed by fundamentalist Christians. It is a tragic when that happens and it angers me as a Christian that people treat the live of a fetus seriously when they ignore the lives of other people. Yet, despite that, the entire Christian faith has not been blamed as a whole. So why do people blame the entire Islamic faith and all Muslims based on isolated events?
That's why episode 4x13, "The Chosen One" of NCIS:Los Angeles was so interesting to me. NCIS:LA has not always been exactly smooth when it comes to dealing with the Islamic faith but this episode was interesting in many ways.
-It presented the view of a person that had been converted after listening to Malcolm X, who was a muslim. the character stated she just wanted to feel "clean", meaning renewed and the faith gave her that. Unfortunately, the faith was terribly twisted and Callen acknowledged that. This view on the Islamic faith is not often presented.
-When Kensi interrogated the Chechen terrorist I was impressed with the fact that she was the one that stated a well known passage from the Quran about the sin of killing people. Throughout that scene, she and the character fought with different views on the act of committing terrorism because of faith. I thought it was interesting they had Kensi defending the Islamic faith. Generally it is condemned by the main characters.
-I was however NOT impressed with the scene they had Callen and one of the terrorist performing prayers. Praying is a very sacred ritual in every faith and is one to be treated with care. Praying is very important to me as a Christian. The same goes for muslims. So to have a character pretending to be a Muslim and participating in such a ritual and that just before a supposed bomb attack is not only extremely offensive to the faith but also misleading about the faith in general. Prayer is the time people come before their God and have a conversation with him, abide in him, love him, get their answers. It is such a sacred and important ritual and I was not happy with the lightness with which they treated it.
-And in episode 4x02 there was one very offensive scene in my opinion. They had Kensi don a traditional burqa with her face covered and everything. Then she entered a shooting scene speaking Arabic and suddenly she pulled out a gun from under her clothes and started firing around. That scene shocked me. I thought it was completely unnecessary first of all to have her enter in such a terrible way and secondly, it was very offensive in my opinion. It supported the stereotypical image of the "shooting Arabic woman" that is so wrong. And it disgraced a traditional outfit of faith I was surprised they even thought of doing this on the show. Thankfully this has not been done since and I hope not to see it again. Like the Germany debacle, it was demeaning to what is a good show.
I respect the fact they decided to attack this issue and they did parts of it very well but it needs to be treated with care and respect. They could have skipped the prayer scene and the episode would have been just as good. Sensitivity is needed when it comes to dealing with religion, every religion. Sensitvity, respect and to remember always that something very important is being portrayed. People can make an effective and thoughtful point while maintaining respectability.
Next up for dissecting i ow NCIS deals with the Muslim faith
Islam bad incidents are innumerable. Non islam terrorist incidents can be counted on one hand. Hence, it is not an equivalent argument to ask why a nonislamic faith is not called in question as the cause of a terroristic act. N
ReplyDeleteI just started watching NICS LA for few days and currently at s02ep04. I keep thinking of how Islamophobic this series is I had to google to see if anyone else had the same opinion.
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