THOSE OF YOU who have paid attention to popular culture over the last three years know about Hollywood's uncomfortable views on terrorism.
For the most part, Hollywood ignores the war on terror. Since September 11, 2001, only a handful of movies and TV shows have been produced that mention the attacks on America. The broader subject of the war on terrorism has been addressed barely at all. And the war in Iraq has been taken up only twice, in documentaries--The Control Room and Fahrenheit 9/11--which are largely critical of America and fawning of the Islamists with whom we are at war.
So if I told you that TNT was airing a mini-series, called The Grid, about the war on terror, you would know what to expect: Sympathetic, over-burdened Muslims and Americans who, when not fighting silly bureaucratic turf-wars, were waging brutal, destructive, real ones. As it turns out, you would be wrong. The Grid is the bravest, most-daring piece of entertainment in years.
IT IS DIFFICULT to overstate how resistant the creative community has been to dealing seriously with the war on terrorism. A year ago, Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, explained why Hollywood was reluctant to tackle the subject: "Who would you have as the enemy if you made a picture about terrorism?" he asked. "You'd probably have Muslims, would you not? If you did, I think there would be backlash from the decent, hardworking, law-abiding Muslim community in this country."
Valenti's concern was well-founded--Muslim activist
groups have a long history of bullying artists into submission. Whenever a production depicts Islamist terrorism, the Council on American-Islamic Relations or some such lobby is there to protest. The result is often ludicrous: In the film version of Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears, for instance, the Islamist terrorists were turned into Nazi white supremacists.
Fortunately, Tracey Alexander and Brian Eastman, the executive producers of The Grid, refused to be cowed. The Grid is not anti-Islamic propaganda. It features several admirable, even heroic, Muslim characters. In fact, the show's creators have gone to great lengths to present a good and moderate picture of Islam. Smartly, they hired Khaled Abou El Fadl, one of the brave voices of moderate, modern Islam, as their Islamic technical advisor. His important influence shows in every frame.
HOWEVER, The Grid does not pretend that all forms of Islam are benevolent. Barely five minutes into the first episode, one character is worrying about what will happen in Saudi Arabia if "extreme Wahhabis" take over the government. This is, to my knowledge, the first time the term "Wahhabi" has been used in a non-news television program.
There's more: Karen Jackson, the NSC counter-terrorism director played by Julianna Margulies, gives a damning assessment of Middle Eastern Islam, saying, "You're right that Islam is the religion of the oppressed. I say that it appeals to oppressed men because it sanctions the oppression of women. To me Islam is one thing: fear. And until the clerics can stand up and say that killing people is the work of the devil, and that it is a woman's God given right to eat, sleep, walk, do, say whatever she wants, I'm dumb, deaf, and blind to what they're selling." This, from a character who is neither the villain, nor the conservative dupe, of the piece--but the heroine.
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