When one writes about Disney, one hopes it would be in appreciation for the hundreds of hours of quality entertainment Disney had once helped to bring to our families’ living rooms. But never in anyone’s wildest dream could we imagine Disney as a vehicle for ethnic and religious propaganda. How should millions of African American Muslims and Muslims of all ethnic backgrounds in the US or around the world interpret this seemingly well-calculated and executed campaign of religious and ethnic defamation? So what is Mike Eisner, Disney’s CEO, up to? Obviously no good.
Take "Aladdin," "Kazaam," then the "Father of the Bride" I and II. As if not enough, enter "G.I. Jane" and "Operation Condor." A Disney Muslim is often an ugly, sinister, violent character of color, sometimes chanting Allah and Death to America while abusing, shooting, or taking a beating from a White or recently (a more sinister twist) an Asian hero as in "Operation Condor." Enough is enough. Is this innocent entertainment or a high-tech defamation war on Muslims and Arabs of global proportion planned and financed by Disney and executed by its affiliates and subsidiaries? When was the last time you saw a movie where the hero was a an African Muslim? Only people of other races and religions save the world. Muslims seek only to destroy.
In a free society, Mr. Eisner and his management team are free to express their hostile personal views on Muslims, but there are more suited channels one can suggest other than the family’s TV set in the sanctity of a family’s living room under the pretext of harmless family entertainment. Our TV sets are already littered with naked violence as it stands. As for sex and violence on TV and the Internet, we have the V-chip and other forms of technological innovations to intercept and block undesirable contents. But there is not a chip or software utility yet to block the more sinister racial and religious intolerance Disney promotes.
So when parents around the world entrust Mr. Eisner with their children’s entertainment, and that is the ultimate trust, what they don'’t realize is that Mr. Eisner and Disney’s management have irresponsibly brought to bear the hundreds and thousands of Disney’s artistic talents and hundreds of millions of dollars of unsuspecting shareholders money for the purpose of polluting millions of innocent young minds helpless and unable to detect the poison Disney is spewing forth disguised as family entertainment. And with Disney’s global reach, the propaganda is extremely damaging.
Next time a Chinese in Guangdong or a Japanese in Ishikawa who may know little of Islam watches "Operation Condor," the negative impressions of Islam and Muslims will linger in his or her mind and shape attitudes towards Muslims as backward and violent terrorists. This is unacceptable. Hollywood’s portrayal of African Americans in its movies have already done damage by introducing negative stereotypes of African Americans to the far reaches of the planet anywhere a TV set can be found. Even a Malaysian or a resident of Singapore who may never even meet an African American can now, thanks to Hollywood, stereotype all African Americans. As if not enough, now Islam, the religions of most African American converts is under attack depicted as the religion of terrorists. Is this commercialism or a political agenda? Many Muslims vote the latter.
Of all the people, a Semitic Mr. Eisner should be most sensitive to such irresponsible deeds. But two lessons can be drawn from past injustices by those who suffered them, avoid it or perpetrate it. Mr. Eisner has been a superb disciple of history but on the side of wrong. Muslims no longer believe in Disney and what it once stood for. Disney must stop using our TV sets as instruments to wage media violence and as tools to promote intolerance. What is next, Mickey Mouse killing Muslims on weekend morning cartoons.
Disney must realize while hate is legal in the US it is immoral by any standards. When hate targets a disadvantaged group, it only plays in the hand of those who thrive on such an atmosphere. This is a lose-lose scenario. What Eisner and his team are charting is a myopic strategy at best, but are the shareholders of Disney listening.