To my shock, I just learned that Fox's hit show, 24, has cast Muslims as the terrorists in its latest installment. I mean, how in the world do they come up with this stuff? Muslims? What are the writers smoking?

Thankfully, Fox will provide stations with TV spots that portray Muslims in a positive light. After all, not all Muslims are terrorists. Although, as Abdel Rahman al-Rashed so famously said:

It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.

I can't tell you how pissed off I am that Fox caved to CAIR on this one. The sad fact of the matter is that America is at war with Muslim terrorists. The 19 men who hijacked planes on 9/11 were all Muslims. The terrorists of Beslan were Muslims. I could go on and on. These days, making terrorists in a work of fiction anything but Muslim smacks of pandering.

CAIR is, of course, worried about the image of Muslims in America:

"When average Americans don't have any personal interaction with Muslims, whether it be at work or at school, they base their perception of Islam and Muslims from what they see on TV," she added. "We did bring that to Fox's attention."

If "average" Americans have a negative perception of Muslims perhaps it's because what they saw on TV was two hijacked jets crashing into buildings and thousands of people being murdered. I might be going out on a limb here, but if there's a negative perception of Muslims maybe that has a little something to do with it.

One thing I wonder about it is whether American Muslims do suffer from severely negative perceptions. I think Americans are (rightly in my opinion) suspicious of Muslim, male non-citizens, but does that feeling extend to our Muslim citizens? I remember reading a few scattered cases of vandalism against Muslims after 9/11, but I also remember reading a story about how people were specifically going to, for example, Pakistani restaurants, to show support for the American Muslim community. In any case, even after 3,000 people died, it wasn't like what's happened in Holland since Theo van Gogh's murder.

I think Americans are far more fair-minded than we're given credit for. We understand that not all terrorists are Muslims. We don't need TV spots to explain that. However, we also understand that most terrorists are Muslims. Even if fiction writers are pressured to sweep that fact under the rug, it won't make the reality of it go away.