NationStates Jolt Archive

The Arab-American anti-discrimination comitte has successfully petitioned UPN TV network and WWE to remove an Arab character from their "Smack Down" Pro-Wrestling program. Apparently they think it will promote bigotry. So much for the Iron Sheik's planned comeback.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/arab_american_character.

A couple things everyone needs to know....
-The person playing Muhammad Hassan is ITALIAN
-Muhammad Hassan's sidekick is also ITALIAN
-They had fake accents (obviously) and spoke jibberish, NOT Arabic
-The "terrorists" were wrestlers from the back
-The segment that aired resembled Palestinians and how they honor those who died in the fight against Israel, nothing more
-The segment that taped on Tuesday, but aired Thursday (the day of the attacks); to edit it would have made the show a half an hour shorter
-There WAS a parental warning
-Muhammad Hassan was going to "get his" in the end, it's not like the WWE wasn't going to let him win too much (he was supposed to defeat the Undertaker at The Great American Bash, but get his ass kicked at the next major pay-per-view)
-The person who played Muhammad Hassan WAS NOT FIRED!! He was sent down to OVW so the writers could come up with a whole new thing for him and send him back in a few months
-Was having the Undertaker "kill" him any better than having a bunch of masked men beat up the Undertaker? I don't think so...

It was a silly gimmick that was questionable, but it was meant to cause a ruckus... that's what Vince is all about. I'm deeply shocked that he bowed down to pressures and angry at the way this all played out. It's censorship, plain and simple and they warned the auidence SEVERAL times about the segment before it came on. If you were really concerned, spoilers were posted all over the internet, so you could read what was going to happen before it happened.

A couple things everyone needs to know....
-The person playing Muhammad Hassan is ITALIAN
-Muhammad Hassan's sidekick is also ITALIAN
-They had fake accents (obviously) and spoke jibberish, NOT Arabic
-The "terrorists" were wrestlers from the back
-The segment that aired resembled Palestinians and how they honor those who died in the fight against Israel, nothing more
-The segment that taped on Tuesday, but aired Thursday (the day of the attacks); to edit it would have made the show a half an hour shorter
-There WAS a parental warning
-Muhammad Hassan was going to "get his" in the end, it's not like the WWE wasn't going to let him win too much (he was supposed to defeat the Undertaker at The Great American Bash, but get his ass kicked at the next major pay-per-view)
-The person who played Muhammad Hassan WAS NOT FIRED!! He was sent down to OVW so the writers could come up with a whole new thing for him and send him back in a few months
-Was having the Undertaker "kill" him any better than having a bunch of masked men beat up the Undertaker? I don't think so...

It was a silly gimmick that was questionable, but it was meant to cause a ruckus... that's what Vince is all about. I'm deeply shocked that he bowed down to pressures and angry at the way this all played out. It's censorship, plain and simple and they warned the auidence SEVERAL times about the segment before it came on. If you were really concerned, spoilers were posted all over the internet, so you could read what was going to happen before it happened.
My bad, I thought he was really an arab.