Big, Bad Muslims: Part Two—24: Season Six

The show's most uber-patriotic DVD cover.

If Jack Bauer represents American ‘values’, then 24’s villains reflect his global ‘others’.

In season one, Serb warlords try to kill the first African-American presidential candidate. Season two sees Middle Eastern terrorists financed by American oilmen attempt to detonate a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. Mexican cartels and a vengeful Mi-6 agent spread a lethal virus in southern California during season three. Terrorist group Crimson Jihad (what a name—ooohhh, like blood!) kidnap the Secretary of Defense, rupture a nuclear power plant, shoot down Air Force One, and almost destroy Los Angeles with a nuclear missile in season four (damn, those guys had a plan).

In these seasons, 24’s villains were less of a vehicle for pushing politics and more focused on providing Jack Bauer strong antagonists. Playing it safe like this was a strength and weakness. Yet that changed in season five.

            Season five (2006), 24’s best, had Russian, British, and American terrorists take hostages, release nerve gas, and attempt to kill the Russian presidential family. All were violent, greedy, and blinded by anti-American ideologies. That is, until the season’s big twist. The true villain behind the attacks was the President of the USA, who believed provoking war between Russian dissidents and its military would gain America Asian oil interests.

24, once a simple thriller, moved into the realm of political commentary and succeeded wonderfully. Although it rightly condemned its villains, each was allowed to speak, to touch the deeper issue at hand. Here, 24 questioned the Bush administration at the height of the Iraq War and did so not in black-and-white terms, but in prevalent grey. It made a continual thematic point to state even hardliner patriotism can be treason. Flawed, human, characters and sharp, economic writing elevated the season to critical acclaim. It won Best Drama Series and Best Actor at the 2006 Emmys.

President Charles Logan: Yes, this dude's an asshole.

In 2007, the stakes were incredibly high for its sixth season. 24’s producers, buoyed by the response to season five’s weighty matters, decided to tackle a delicate subject: Muslim extremists operating in America. The stakes were high, but the slope was too steep.

            Obviously, 24 used Muslim terrorists in seasons two and four. The difference between those seasons and season six are paramount to condemning season six’s depictions. In season two, the terrorists worked for American oilmen for profit, not for ideological gain. They had no real political purpose, only greed, grounding their actions in a universal temptation the American viewer could accept as applying to everyone. In season four, Crimson Jihad, led by Habib Marwan (an excellent Arnold Vosloo), proclaimed the exact purpose for their attacks in a homemade video:

People of America, you wake up today to a different world. One of your own

nuclear weapons has been used against you. It will be days and weeks before

you can measure the damage we have caused. But as you count your dead,

remember why this has happened to you. You have no knowledge for the causes

of the people you strike down or the nations you conquer. You choose to meddle

in their affairs, without respect. You follow your government, unquestioningly,

toward your own slaughter. Today, you pay the price for that ignorance...Unless

you renounce your policies of imperialism and interventionist activities, this attack

will be followed by another...and another after that.

Crimson Jihad criticized the Bush regime’s foreign policy. Marwan, intelligent and well spoken, killed only when necessary, and Vosloo, so charismatic in the role, captivated the screen. Although Marwan was evil, he was not a Muslim stereotype. His religion, like the terrorists in season two, was moot. His motivations were purely political, and for much of the season, largely ignored.

Nevertheless, when his character emerged, The Council on American-Islamic Relations cautioned the show on how it portrayed Muslims. In a BBC News statement, the CAIR said: “Repeated association of acts of terrorism with Islam will only serve to increase anti-Muslim prejudice.” Kiefer Sutherland appeared before 24’s next episode with this announcement:

Hi. My name is Kiefer Sutherland and I play counterterrorist 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. 

Yes, a nice sentiment, maybe weightless, maybe forced. Still, such intention was lost on the creative team behind the show’s sixth season. Religion—evil, evil Islam—is the only motivation of its Muslim villains.

24: Season Six has, coincidentally, six major Muslim characters. All become mired by Middle Eastern/Muslim myths. As discussed by Edward Said in his seminal work, Orientalism, the roots of Islam’s clash with the West was caused by its misconception and demonization by Western powers. Robert Irwin summarizes Orientalism as the “discourse of imperialism…[one] that constraints everything that can be written and thought in the West about the Orient and more particularly about Islam and the Arabs…The West possesses a monopoly over how the Orient may be represented…[carrying] implications about Western superiority” (3). Bernard Lewis, in From Babel to Dragomans, states “[The West is] accused of distortion, not just distortion of this or that individual theme, but a systematic, deliberate distortion conducted as a profession or, more precisely, as a conspiracy” (437). I don’t buy the conspiracy part of Lewis’ assessment, but feel rather that now ignorance has fallen over our views of the Middle East. When it comes to artistically depicting the region and its people in accurate (ie: multi-faceted) light, unfortunately we often find laziness and a reliance on outdated archetypes. 24’s Muslim depictions in season six explicitly exist in Orientalist branding. Specifically, the show depicts a ‘backward’ behavior considered abnormal to the West which inhabits these strange ‘others’ Jack Bauer must defeat.

Return for Part 3, where I’ll begin to analyze season six as it unfolds.

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