The first new episode this season of Fox's 24 has yet to hit the screen and
already the network has offended a Muslim group.
After viewing a portion of the first episode included on a DVD in
Entertainment Weekly, officials from the Council on American-Islamic
Relations expressed dismay at the depiction of a Muslim family.
"At first I was shocked," organization spokeswoman Rabiah Ahmed told the
New York Daily News. "In this particular case, they show an American-Muslim
family and they portray them as terrorists..."
"What we will accomplish today will change the world," the father tells the
son over breakfast. "We are fortunate that our family has been chosen to do
this."
Ahmed said the scene "casts a cloud of suspicion over every American-Muslim
family out there."
A Fox spokesman said the company had no comment.
Ahmed acknowledged the possibility that in the remaining half of the first
episode -- which was not on the promotional DVD -- the storyline could have
indicated this was not a typical family show.