CAIR condemns Law & Order for “Islamophobic” episode, demands producers meet Muslim leaders

CAIR “wants the producers of NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) to meet with Muslim community leaders, in response to a controversial episode that aired last week, which viewers criticized for promoting Islamophobia and perpetuating harmful stereotypes.”

Strange. The CBS program “Living Biblically” is an entire series which mocks Christianity but is generally accepted as free expression, ignored by some, disgusting to some, watched and laughed at by others. That’s the extent of it. There are many programs in fact, that make fun of Christians, Indians, Chinese people, blacks, virtually everyone. But Islamic supremacists will not integrate into Western society where many Westerners engage in offensive humor and expression. Instead, there is a dramatic, embarrassing fallout when Muslims are insulted; a big hoopla which is characteristic of sharia societies if Muslims ever do feel insulted. Unfortunately, rather than encourage Muslims to adapt, many are enabling the same behaviors found in these countries. Islamic supremacists refuse to live peaceably in Western societies as Hindus, Buddhists and other religions adherents do without expectations of special treatment.

As for the sensitivities expressed about ridiculing Ilhan Omar in the episode, is there any politician mocked more than the current President of the United States, Donald Trump?

“Muslim Group Calls Out ‘Law & Order: SVU’ For Episode ‘Enflaming Islamophobia’”, by Marina Fang,  Huffington Post, May 14, 2019:

A Muslim advocacy organization wants the producers of NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU)” to meet with Muslim community leaders, in response to a controversial episode that aired last week, which viewers criticized for promoting Islamophobia and perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Monday that it wrote a letter to the show’s executive producer Dick Wolf to “urge you and your staff to meet with leaders of the Muslim community to learn why this episode makes the rising tide of bigotry even worse, and what you can to do mitigate the damage that has already been done.”

One of the episode’s storylines involved a character, city councilwoman Nahla Nasar, who appeared to be an exaggerated version of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Omar has been the subject of bad-faith attacks from opponents who have falsely equated her support for Palestine with anti-Semitism.

CAIR said that the episode advanced “a ridiculous plot line that mocks the real hatred being experienced by real American Muslims and other minority communities,” executive director Nihad Awad wrote in the letter.

Afaf Nasher, the director of CAIR’s New York chapter, urged the show’s producers to “avoid enflaming Islamophobia,” warning that the episode may “lend a hand to anti-Muslim bigots.”

The group said the episode, which aired last Thursday, also “portrayed Muslim men in a negative light and suggested that growing Islamophobia in America is a hoax.”

A spokeswoman for NBC did not immediately return a request for comment on the letter and the criticism of the episode.

Last Thursday, social media users criticized the episode, which mashed together Nasar’s storyline with plot points inspired by two other real-life figures who sparked controversy: “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett and high school student Nicholas Sandmann…..

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission.

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