Patinkin says 'Homeland' trying to improve Muslim depiction

The real issue is that Americans always find a rationalization for their actions - based on their own interpretation. I have watched several TV episodes and movies that present Arab or Muslims or even Japanese, Korean and Russian as uncivilized people creating mafias within American community. Denzel Washington in his movie ( Rule of engagement ) for example killed civilians on their land just for the fantasy of Great America. I wonder when this will end.

The sixth season is the best so far, and the fifth season was also excellent.

Season 6 has been excellent so far! Homeland is just an awesome show!

its gonna take A LOT more than this to improve the Muslims image...

they show Japanese yakuza, Chinese triads, South American drug lords, South Asian pirates, Russian assassins, they are all minorities and you don't see anyone complaining.

I have watched every season of Homeland and actually think this series has shown Muslims as complex human beings, many with positive characters, probably more than any other American TV or movie drama. Yes, most of the bad guys have been Muslim, too, and I don't discount the pushback against that, but for a show whose protagonist is/was an Arabic speaking CIA field agent specializing in the Middle East, that's kind of inevitable. The show obviously also shows the CIA and American foreign policy objectives and execution in a critical light.

they show Japanese yakuza, Chinese triads, South American drug lords, South Asian pirates, Russian assassins, they are all minorities and you don't see anyone complaining.

yes well some minorities play the victim card more than others i suppose...

ThunderbirdMAR. 09, 2017 - 11:37AM JST they show Japanese yakuza, Chinese triads, South American drug lords, South Asian pirates, Russian assassins, they are all minorities and you don't see anyone complaining.

Think for even a moment about what you just posted:

Japanese yakuza, Chinese triads, South American drug lords, South Asian pirates, Russian assassins

Each group you mention is not a minority group, it is a definitionally criminal organization making up an incredibly tiny sub-group of the minorities you mention. The show doesn't represent Japanese people as criminals, it presents Japanese Yakuza as criminals. Audiences are used to seeing Japanese people, Chinese people, South Americans, South Asians, and Russians who aren't part of the criminal groups you list, so there isn't an implicit assumption that all members of that minority group are criminals and there isn't a fear that any given member of the public from that minority group is secretly a criminal.

There is a surging bigoted political movement in the west right now trying to portray Muslims as inherently terrorists in nature. We've even had posters on this very board try to argue that Muslims were inherently incompatible with western society, and unfortunately until very recently the mods have tended to tolerate that kind of open bigotry. Most of the viewing public is unfortunately not very used to the idea of ordinary non-criminal Muslim people because they tend to not encounter Muslim people in real life. So it is important to explicitly show audiences that not all Muslims are terrorists and it's entirely appropriate for Patinkin to try and do a better job.

One has to wonder who exactly would be opposed to this move. The only group I can think of is people with extreme and irrational hatred of Muslims.

Yeah Hollywood, when people say "diversity" they probably didn't mean "diverse bad guys"

But but, hollywood loves diversity!! And isn't it too little too late anyway?

people with extreme and irrational hatred of Muslims

People, indiscriminately, around the world have a very good reason to fear Islam. Their ideology allows them to attack and brutally kill ANYONE, that doesn't agree with their nonsense. They even kill people who are muslims but justify it as the work of their leader, an illiterate camel herder.

they show Japanese yakuza, Chinese triads, South American drug lords, South Asian pirates, Russian assassins, they are all minorities and you don't see anyone complaining.

I did not see Italian (Sicilian) complaint about God Farther/Scare face...... TV show is a TV show is a TV show. If someone can behave, believe or act based on a fictional TV show, you have more problem with people's IQ than anything else.

“In all kinds of entertainment - movies, television - there are always the bad guys; the cowboys and Indians, then the Russians were the bad guys, the Nazis were the bad guys. Now it seems like Muslim ‘terrorists’ are the bad guys,”

Yeah, cuz terrorists have caused so much more damage than the Banksters, Wall Street, lobbyists and career politicians. Where's the TV show about them?

Tried watching this. Didn't last 10 minutes for me. Same old themes, different faces. They should rename it the "Fear Factor". Oh wait, that's taken.

^ Fear factor was quite entertaining until it changed to Gross factor.

"now trying to portray Muslims as inherently terrorists in nature."

Well, take a look at the state of the Muslim world right now. Most of it is indeed "inherently" violent, divided, backward, intolerant, and poverty stricken. A coincidence? Yeah, right.

No Hollywood propaganda campaign in the world is going to change the reality.

"when people say "diversity" they probably didn't mean "diverse bad guys""

Indeed. I recall in the 90s and beyond, it was blond Europeans, like Jeremy Irons in the "Die Hard" franchise, who were the inevitable bad guys.

Well, take a look at the state of the Muslim world right now. Most of it is indeed "inherently" violent, divided, backward, intolerant, and poverty stricken. A coincidence? Yeah, right.

No it's not a coincidence. A lot of it has to do with America's invasion of Iraq, which destabilized that country and gave birth to groups like ISIS and Al Nusra. Add to that the Wests hand in overthrowing Gadaffi in Libya, resulting in a failed state run my heavily armed militias and the West's backing of terrorist groups invading Syria (with support from the West's allies Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States). This has largely become a proxy war against Iran and it's allies, as is the Saudi's brutality in Yemen. Then you have the actions of Israel in the occupied territories, again largely supported by the US and the West, and you start to get the picture. I advise you to read regularly the articles by Robert Fisk in the Independent. He speaks Arabic and has lived in Beirut for over 40 years, so I think he has a better handle on events in that region than your average CNN/Fox talking head. If you want to know more about the West's relationship with the Middle East read Fisk's "The Great War for Civilization". Im not saying the West is 100% responsible for that regions woes, but the violence, brutality, and war that we have unleashed or supported can not be overlooked in the least.And one need only look at the balance sheets of major US arms manufacturers, to see who benefits.

"A lot of it has to do with America's invasion of Iraq"

What was happening in Iraq prior the invasion? Saddam was a murderous monster in case Fisk never told you that.

I agree that Western intervention is wrong. But nearly always, it's done to stop the local people from mass murdering each other.

Fisk is outspoken in his disgust at the Middle East's autocratic rulers, many of whom, like the Governments of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are supported by the US, as was Saddam for decades. The point is, nothing is solved by "Regime Change" and "Shock and Awe". It only leads to greater destabilization, increased sectarianism, radicalism and misery and death for thousands of innocent people. There is absolutely no benevolence in that policy, it's only furthering US (and it's allies) interests in the region. Ask any Iraqi if they would prefer to have Saddam back or continue life in the chaotic state that is Iraq is today, and I'm pretty sure I know how the majority would answer. And that would be the case in Libya, Syria, Afghanistan or any other country we have "helped".

"It only leads to greater destabilization, increased sectarianism, radicalism and misery and death for thousands of innocent people."

"Only"? I suggest you read up on history. Jordan, a leading light in the Middle East, was created wholly by Britain. Fortunately for the people in the borders of that good country, religious - as well as tribal and ethnic divisions - didn't get a chance to hold sway, and something approaching a civil society has developed there.

Jordon is the kind of state the West aims to foster when it "intervenes." But too often, the good intentions are undermined by fatwas, calls for jihad and other destructive local forces. The West, in its humanitarian zeal, is naive in this regard.

Only"? I suggest you read up on history. Jordan, a leading light in the Middle East, was created wholly by Britain.

So were Syria, Iraq, Lebanon (and Israel for that matter). Syria was one of the most prosperous and stable nations in the region until "Regime Change" was decided, as was Iraq under Saddam and Libya under Gaddafi. The difference with Jordan is they have no oil (or they don't stand in the way of a natural gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkey, as Syria does.This is what has saved them from the plight of Iraq, Libya and Syria. And Jordan is not quite the"civil society" you suggest. It's prisons (an well as those of Syria) were Black Sites for the CIA when conducting interrogations (which involved torture) on prisoners captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just the kind of state the west aims to foster to be sure.

And it would be difficult to deny that the Sunni radicalism that has swept across, and brought violence to the region, was given a huge boost by the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan when Arabs such as Bin Laden were financed and encouraged to join the Jihad against the USSR in Afghanistan.There is a direct link from that to 911, the invasion of Iraq, and the sectarian violence that has plagued the Middle East since then.

@MarkusL

"Syria was one of the most prosperous and stable nations in the region... "

Yeah, a class act. It was for a long time a Soviet client state that twice attempted to wipe out its tiny neighbor Israel. And failed, after the vastly outnumbered Israelis easily outsmarted them, and a large phalanx of other Muslim adversaries.

"The difference with Jordan is they have no oil"

Um, no. Their royal family and leaders early on recognized the advantages joining the modern world, while being able to keep the local religious nutters at bay.

Anyway, the Islamic world isn't limited to the Middle East. There are many other shining examples of tolerance and progressive thinking like Aceh, Pakistan, Chechnya, Xinjiang, Zamboango, Somalia, Southern Yorkshire and many, many more. As I said, the Muslim world has really, really serious problems of its own creation -- and Hollywood political correctness isn't going to change that a whit.

Viewer numbers will determine the shows future not the PC crowd.