Debbie Schlussel: Jihad on Fox's "24"

By Debbie Schlussel
DebbieSchlussel.com
February 10, 2005

It was too good to be true.

FOX’s “24” is the most exciting show on TV, this season. Action. Adventure. And it actually tells the truth about Islamic terrorists.
They are here on our shores, pretending to be loyal Americans, and they are plotting to take over our country. With the help of plenty of complicit Muslim-Americans, working for the government and government contractors.

Unfortunately, 9/11 wasn’t enough to prove that to many Americans. Way too many Americans—especially the ones deciding what we see on the big and small screens.
Take Suhail Khan, who was the Bush White House’s director of Muslim Outreach. His father, Mahboob Khan, brought Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri into the United States and into his mosque, twice in the mid-to-late ‘90s, to raise money for Al-Qaeda. Suhail Khan invited anti-American terrorists, like indicted Islamic Jihad chief Sami Al-Arian, into the White House to meet with the President.

But a “West Wing” episode written about Khan was laudatory of his loyalty to America.

(Incredibly, Khan remains in the Bush Administration as General Counsel to the Federal Highway Administration, where he’s informed of all transports of military and nuclear weapons and hazardous material on federal highways.)

I’ve written about Hollywood’s worship at the politically correct alter of radical Islam. Despite the reality that all contemporary terrorists are Muslim, Hollywood operates in another universe where all terrorists are Hispanic drug-dealers and neo-Nazis – anybody but Muslims. Because, as we all know, Hispanic drug-dealers and neo-Nazis blew up New York buildings, hijacked planes, murdered their New Jersey Coptic neighbors, and beheaded Americans in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

With “24,” FOX violated this taboo. Therefore, FOX must now repent for committing the heinous sin of actually portraying the truth about the most serious problem of our time.
In the middle of Monday’s episode of “24,” viewers were treated to the following mea culpa, courtesy of Kiefer Sutherland, “24”’s star:

"Hi. My name is Kiefer Sutherland. And I play counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer on Fox's ‘24’. I would like to take a moment to talk to you about something that I think is very important. Now while terrorism is obviously one of the most critical challenges facing our nation and the world, it is important to recognize that the American Muslim community stands firmly beside their fellow Americans in denouncing and resisting all forms of terrorism. So in watching 24, please, bear that in mind."

Poor Kiefer. Until “24,” his most famous role was as one of Julia Robert’s jilted bridegrooms on his wedding day. And that wasn’t a role. It was real life. Now the only role he apparently aspires to is lover to 72 dark-eyed virgins, or at least repenter to those martyrs who aim for that role.

Any salivating Pavlov’s dog or monkey seeking a banana for lunch would read that statement, too. Apparently, Kiefer is no better. At mid-life, he doesn’t want to lose his only successful acting gig. So, he’ll do as he’s told by the FOX network execs, who can’t take the heat from whining Islamic terror apologists. He’s ignorant of the Lackawanna Six and assorted other Muslim-American terrorists caught in this country on a daily basis.

Ironically, the two groups behind this apology for the existence of “24” are the groups that demonstrate how the American Muslim community actually does NOT stand firmly beside their fellow Americans in denouncing and resisting terrorism in every form.
In fact, the groups—Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)—have ties to HAMAS and Al-Qaeda, and expressly support Al-Qaeda network terrorists.

MPAC is headed by Salam Al-Marayati. Al-Marayati, a close friend of pro-Hezbollah Congressman Darrell Issa, is himself a Hezbollah fan. He defended Hezbollah’s murder of over 300 U.S. Marines and civilians while they slept and claimed that Hezbollah, a major component of the Al-Qaeda network, is not a terrorist group. Al-Marayati equated “jihad” with the statements of Patrick Henry.

Al-Marayati’s concern for the portrayal of Muslims as terrorist is outdone by his passion for the vilification of Jews and Israelis as terrorists. Hours after the 9/11 attacks, he accused Israel of perpetrating them. In an e-mail, this “moderate” Muslim approvingly quoted Hitler: “As Hitler said, the more intelligent the Jew is, the more he lies.” No Kiefer Sutherland-esque apologies.

Al-Marayati’s wife, Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, could be the real life version of the mother in “24”’s terror cell. The charity she heads, KinderUSA, recently shut down and is under investigation for funding HAMAS. Its executive director and a board member were held in Israel for aiding terrorists. KinderUSA is tied to the Holy Land Foundation, whose employees have been indicted for funding and ties to HAMAS and Al-Qaeda. Dr. Al-Marayati told the Los Angeles Times that KinderUSA avoided charges of knowingly helping suicide bombers' families by not asking how an orphan's father died.

Then, there’s CAIR. Oliver “Buck” Revell and Steve Pomerantz, former FBI Directors of Counterterrorism, call CAIR, a HAMAS front-group. Saudi-funded CAIR got its original seed money and executive director, Nihad Awad, from another group (Islamic Association for Palestine) that was started with $490,000 from the personal bank account of indicted HAMAS political director Moussa Abu Marzook. Awad, like MPAC’s Al-Marayati, is an avowed supporter of HAMAS and Hezbollah. CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper refuses to denounce Bin Laden.

Several CAIR officials and associates have been convicted of terrorism, money-laundering, and fraud charges, including CAIR “communications specialist and civil rights coordinator” Ismail Royer, who pled guilty to helping Al-Qaeda’s terror network. CAIR disseminated assassination fatwas against moderate Muslim Americans. A recent CAIR Michigan confab featured more of the same.

Shohreh Aghdashloo, who plays the mother in “24”’s terror cell, and Jonathan Ahdout, who plays her son, also played Islamic mother and son in the Oprah-promoted 2003 movie, “House of Sand and Fog." There was no Keifer-esque disclaimer in that movie, in which the Muslims were hard-working, sympathetic, fatal victims of Americans, and the Americans were a loser, alcoholic, psycho maid, and an evil, philandering, murderous cop.

But in the case of “24,” even Aghdashloo, an Iranian Muslim, dismisses CAIR and MPAC. "They think after what happened on 9/11 that we're going to forget it?" she told USA Today.

Apparently, we’ve already forgotten. That’s what they’re banking on.

Debbie Schlussel can be contacted at dschlussel@yahoo.com