Dilshad D. Ali: January 2007 Archives

So you think that Muhammad Ali is the most famous convert to Islam? Well the "fastest-growing religion" may be welcoming a new brother to the fold, and brother, this potential convert would be a thriller.

It seems that Jermaine Jackson, who finished as runner-up on the British "Celebrity Big Brother," believes that his ultra-famous little brother, Michael Jackson, has given "serious thought" about converting to Islam. That's right folks. Brother Jermaine, a convert himself, said on Monday that he would like the King of Pop to consider Islam, saying that the religion would be "a great protection for [Michael] from all the things that he's been attacked with, which are false."

In an interview with BBC's Asian Network, Jermaine Jackson said there's strength and protection in Islam, adding that his faith kept him sane during his confinement in the Celebrity Big Brother house: "If I didn't have Allah and my prayer rug, I would not have survived and the reason why is because it kept me focused, it kept me calm."

Brother Michael, who now lives in Bahrain in the Middle East, has thought a lot about Islam during his long stays in the country, Jermaine said. Jermaine, in fact, takes credit for Michael moving to Bahrain, saying he "wanted him to get out of America and just go somewhere it's peaceful and quite and people pray five times a day, which is beautiful."

Having visited Western-loving Middle East countries myself (I spent a lovely vacation in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates a few years back), I can see how this part of the story could be true. Countries like Bahrain and the UAE are the near-perfect union of Western modernity and hipness with Muslim faith and morality.

But I'd be really, really surprised if Michael Jackson did indeed convert to Islam. After all, if some of his bizarre behaviors (not to mention his unfortunate trouble with child molestation accusations--though he was acquitted) don't fly in the U.S., it would be doubly the case in the Muslim world.

But like all major religions, Islam believes in fresh start if a person is really sincere about it. So maybe the King of Pop, if he really wanted it, would have a better life as a Muslim. Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) sure has (in my humble opinion), made a success of it.

It couldn't have gotten any worse on "24" when the first of five nuclear bombs was detonated, presumably by Muslim terrorists. And so the eagerly anticipated season began, with Muslim extremists as the villain this time around. There's been a venerable smorgasborg of baddies on "24," the popular Fox drama that follows agent Jack Bauer, a one-man terrorist-fighting machine who each season races madly to try and avert some major disaster over the span of just 24 hours.

"24's" mix of bad guys has included "shadowy Anglo businessmen, Baltic Europeans, Germans, Russians, Islamic fundamentalists, and even the Anglo-American president of the United States," the network said in a press release. But the American Muslim community is up in arms again this year over the bad guys being Muslims, as was the case two seasons earlier.

But is it really that big a deal? Of course being Muslim myself, I cringe when I see Muslim terrorists being trotted out as the villain du jour in any movie or television show. But many Muslim advocacy groups are taking this a step further: "The overwhelming impression you get is fear and hatred for Muslims," said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

"After watching ["24"], I was afraid to go to the grocery store because I wasn't sure the person next to me would be able to differentiate between fiction and reality," Ahmed said in a CNN.com article.

Come on. I will probably draw the ire of many Muslims and Islamic groups by saying this, but we may be taking the power of a television show too seriously here. Granted, in a time when Muslims are sensitive to negative depictions of their faith and people--and rightly so--I can see why CAIR and other groups are wagging their finger at Fox for making Muslims the villains of the show again this season.

But at the same time, the choice of the typical villain in film and television follows the trajectory of who is deemed the "enemy" during that time. So in the 1980s, when we were in Cold War with the former Soviet empire, Russians were the bad guys in most films. At other times, when there was much attention on the growing illegal drug problem in the U.S., television and film gave us stereotypical Hispanic drug dealers to hiss at.

And now, sadly, Muslim extremists get those roles. It's not the way I, or millions of other non-extremist Muslims want it, but that's what happens in Hollywood. Does this mean we should just accept every show and film that chooses to make Muslims the bogeyman? No. We just have to pick our battles--fight the fight where there will be an impact. Like when Muslims protested Bruce Willis's 1998 movie, "The Siege."

"24" is not a one-season show. Jack Bauer is in it for the long haul, and through the years he has fought a whole slew of dastardly demons. Some years it is a devious U.S. president and other years it is Muslim extremists. Let's be fair: The show does cover some topics of importance to Muslims, including the detention of terror suspects in Guantanamo-type detention centers, the loss of Muslims' civil rights, and racial profiling.

The bottom line is that, like many other Muslims who take pride in their faith, I hate to see the minor, extremist population of Islam get face time. But that's what Hollywood does, and it's not the biggest battle Muslims have to fight. There's a lot more there to worry about than "24." And Jack is an awfully compelling hero to watch.

Yvonne De Carlo died of natural causes on Monday at the age of 84. The name isn't familiar to you? Remember the quirky matriarch of the Munsters clan, Lily Munster? De Carlo breathed life into that television character--the serenely smiling mother to Eddie and wife to the bumbling, loveable, big-hearted Frankenstein-ian monster, Herman.

Though only on for two seasons in the early 1960s, "The Munsters" became part of television pop culture with its endless reruns and two Munsters movies. Its endearing quality came from the eccentric characters who were just trying to be part of the neighborhood (well, perhaps Grandpa wasn't trying to fit in).

Lily Munster, played with such ease by De Carlo, was the ultimate mother--always there for her family, smoothing the way, picking up the pieces, making everything all better. Though it made her a star, Lily Munster was a job that De Carlo took for money, as she was fighting to pay huge medical bills for her stuntsman husband Bob Morgan, who had lost his leg in an accident on set.

De Carlo will always be remembered for Lily Munster, but the accomplished actress had a number of movie roles under her belt, the most famous of which was playing wife to Charlton Heston's Moses in "The Ten Commandments."

That's right. Before she was Lily Munster, De Carlo was Sephora, the noble, beautiful, supportive wife of Moses.

So she will live on, in Munsters syndication (it's on television somewhere in the world right now, I'm sure), and every Easter when "The Ten Commandments" is shown in primetime.