The following is off the AP newswire:
Amid complaints, WWE agrees to remove Arab-American character
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
AP Business Writer
July 22, 2005, 3:08 PM EDT
STAMFORD, Conn. — World Wrestling Entertainment has agreed to remove an Arab-American character from a popular television show after complaints about an episode featuring masked henchmen that aired the day of the London bombings.
The Stamford-based wrestling company said it would no longer feature Muhammad Hassan on its “SmackDown!” program. UPN, the station that airs he show, had asked WWE to be sensitive about the character, WWE said.
“It was an interesting character,” said Gary Davis, a WWE spokesman. “This was an unfortunate sequence of events. Some people drew the conclusion these people were terrorists even though they were not terrorists.”
During the episode, five Hassan henchmen in ski masks and camouflage ran into the ring to beat up his rival, the Undertaker, who had defeated Hassan’s sidekick. The men then carried Hassan’s sidekick over their heads, which to some evoked a martyr’s funeral.
The show did not air in London, but it did appear in the U.S. with an advisory to parents because of the bombings, Davis said. The segment sparked 200 to 300 complaints, he said.
“There really wasn’t any time for UPN to edit the program. So they opted to put up an advisory,” Davis said.
While Hassan will not appear again on “SmackDown!,” he will be featured Sunday on a pay-per view event. Beyond that, his future is uncertain.
“SmackDown!” draws more than 5 million viewers per week, Davis said.
“We asked them to remove it because we thought that was the right thing to do,” said Joanna Massey, a UPN spokeswoman.
Hassan, a character introduced last November and played by Mark Copani, grows up in Detroit as a typical American.
But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he believes he is treated differently by his fellow Americans, leading him to embrace his Arab roots and feel alienated from the U.S.
“The whole point of the story line and this character was to point out the injustices Arab-Americans have suffered since 9-11,” Davis said.
But the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee objected to the character. One of its campaigns resulted in nearly 500 complaints sent to WWE, a spokeswoman said.
The character could raise doubts about the patriotism of Arab-Americans, said Siwar Bandar, communications coordinator for the committee.
“The character deals with a very sensitive issue,” Bandar said. “However, he does so in a context that is violent, that is turning his back on America.”
The committee welcomed the decision to take the character off “SmackDown!” and hopes WWE will make major changes to the character or not feature the wrestler at all, Bandar said.
WWE counts on villains to draw fan interest in its plots, said WWE analyst Dennis McAlpine, managing director of McAlpine Associates in Scarsdale, N.Y. With the Cold War long over, Russians are out and it’s getting tougher to find a bad guy, he said.
“You can’t find too many more bad guys any more,” McAlpine said. “I think the character was probably getting a bit over the top any way.”
The controversy left Hassan angry on a recent episode in which he was greeted with shouts of “USA” as he entered the ring. One fan held up a sign telling him to leave the country.
“Because of my heritage, because of my background, I’m labeled ‘terrorist,’ ” Hassan told the fans to a chorus of boos. “I have been denied my God-given right to pursue the profession of my choice, to pursue the American dream.”
