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By Tim Graham, Mar. 22, 2014, Newsbusters
ABC Family has killed its program “Alice in
Arabia” before it began after complaints that it relied on stereotypes of
Muslims, a network spokesperson told BuzzFeed Friday
night. The show's pick-up had been announced on Monday.
The pilot followed an
American teen who is kidnapped by her Saudi Arabian extended family and must
“find a way to return home while surviving life behind the veil.” The
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) hated it. In a letter to ABC executives, ADC
President Samer Khalaf complained:
By purchasing a pilot of the show, The Walt
Disney Company, along with ABC Family, continue to unabashedly perpetuate
harmful stereotypes, orientalism and Islamophobia… The imagery and depiction of
the respective communities as kidnappers and oppressors of women, reinforces
harmful stereotypical depictions of the communities as thieves, criminals, persons
who engage in violent acts, captives and/or persecutors…
By purchasing the
pilot, ABC Family has reinforced these damning views, and has shown the world
that there is a market for hate and bigotry. ABC Family and the Walt Disney
Company, as a major programming source for American children, adolescents, and
families, possess immense influence on the American zeitgeist and next
generation, and have a duty to exert that influence in a meaningful, positive
way, not one that demonizes a people, a religion and a region.
Read the full story: www.newsbusters.org
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