ABC Family Caves To CAIR- Nixes "Alice In Arabia"

After a firestorm of negative social media postings and pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, ABC Family network has nixed the pilot for the proposed TV series "Alice In Arabia." And it didn't take very long for that decision to be made.

CAIR, of course, is thrilled that ABC caved.  Without knowing much about the story, other than the fact that it was "about an American teenage girl kidnapped by her extended royal Saudi Arabian family and forced to live with them," it was immediately assumed there would be stereotyping.

Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR said of ABC's decision:

 "We welcome ABC Family channel's decision to respond to community concerns by canceling plans for a program that had the potential to promote ethnic and religious stereotyping."  "We thank all those who voiced their concerns on this issue." 

Of course a lot of actors are now out of a potential gig because of that 'potential', including a slew of minority performers, mind you, but that means naught.

According to an article in The Hollywood Reporter, ABC had this to say about the controversy and its subsequent decision to not move forward:

“The current conversation surrounding our pilot was not what we had envisioned and is certainly not conducive to the creative process, so we’ve decided not to move forward with this project."

I realize that it was easier for them to just say forget it rather than deal with the likes of CAIR, but it's setting a terrible precedent. It's just adding more fuel to the Muslim censorship fire, and confirming that all they have to do is hit the social media sites to eventually get their way. Take a look at what people like Muslim convert Irish/Iranian/American Cyrus McGoldrick has to say. He posted this on his Facebook page:

Getting #AliceInArabia cancelled was a good move - I'm glad it got done so quickly, too. These skirmishes with Zionist Hollywood should be easy and decisive, and I'm so pleasantly surprised that this was. S/o to ADC, CAIR, and the many individuals who stormed the internet and handled this.

I have a question, though, based on what activists said in media: Is "representation" the issue? Do we really need film terrorists played by real Arabs as opposed to random brown people? Do we really want to spend time asking the US military (the greatest force of destruction in decades) to accommodate religious beliefs so we can join it?

Side note on Goldrick- he was affiliated with CAIR a while back as advocacy director of the New York office.

Zionist Hollywood?  Nice. But that first paragraph shows exactly their M.O. It's only going to get worse.

H/T: Creeping Shariah

ABC Family's 'Alice In Arabia' Outrages Arabs and Muslims

ABC Family has a TV show in the works titled Alice In Arabia, about a young American girl who is whisked away to Saudi Arabia by her Saudi grandfather after her parents die. ABC has this to say about the series:

“Alice in Arabia” is a high-stakes drama series about a rebellious American teenage girl who, after tragedy befalls her parents, is unknowingly kidnapped by her extended family, who are Saudi Arabian. Alice finds herself a stranger in a new world but is intrigued by its offerings and people, whom she finds surprisingly diverse in their views on the world and her situation. Now a virtual prisoner in her grandfather’s royal compound, Alice must count on her independent spirit and wit to find a way to return home while surviving life behind the veil. The pilot was written by Brooke Eikmeier, who previously served in the US Army as a Cryptologic Linguist in the Arabic language, trained to support NSA missions in the Middle East. She left service in September 2013 as a rank E-4 Specialist.

As expected, the Arab/Muslim community is crying foul, calling it offensive, racist, contributing to negative stereotypes. Mind you, no-one has seen an episode yet, but they've still hit the Twittersphere with the usual bitching and moaning.

Samia Shameem @SamIAm_NoHam (who wears a hijab) posted:

"…while surviving life behind the veil." The veil is not a set of prison bars. Stop. #AliceInArabia @ABCFamily

Maybe not for Samia, but to any Western non-Muslim woman, yes indeed they would be considered prison bars.

But since no-one has seen the show yet, they should reserve their outrage until they do.

ABC has chimed in on the uproar.

“We hope people will wait to judge this show on its actual merits once it is filmed. The writer is an incredible storyteller and we expect Alice to be a nuanced and character driven show,” a spokesperson for ABC Family wrote in an email to California radio station KPCC.

We won't know for sure whether the characters will be stereotypical or not until it airs, but if they are- that's Hollywood for you.

This is a TV series people, if you find something offensive don't watch it. Besides, it will give actors of Arab descent a heck of a lot of work.