Last Thursday WWE aired a promo featuring several men in black ski masks along with Arab-American wrestler Muhammad Hassan.
\nYou may have seen some of the coverage already, but WWE was ripped on by numerous media outlets (who don’t understand wrestling at all). The problem with the promo and bit was that it aired the night of the London bombings (it was taped on Tuesday night). WWE representatives apolgized for the bad timing but stuck with their guns. The promo was edited out in the UN and UPN ran a scroller announcement to warn parents of the upcoming promo.<\/p>\n
It would have been better if this segment did not coincide with the events in London last week. Putting timing aside, we believe the segment added an interesting dimension to our exploration of the Mohammed Hassan character and the plight of Arab-Americans in this country.
\nEssentially, Hassan called in some additional muscle in last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s SmackDown! to beat on the Undertaker to give him an advantage in their #1 Contender match at the Great American Bash, a tactic used by other Superstars to gain a competitive advantage before a crucial match.
\nBecause these henchmen wore masks and camouflage pants, and because Hassan is of Arab descent, some viewers may have leapt to the conclusion that these henchmen are terrorists. They are not, as our viewers will learn in future episodes.
\nAnyone who has followed the story of Mohammed Hassan knows that he is an American, born in Detroit, of Arab descent. He believes that since 9\/11, he is being treated differently by his fellow Americans because of his Arab background. This has driven him to embrace his Arab roots, further estranging him from his fellow Americans. Many of the points Hassan raises have relevance to the prejudice of our society today. However, the way he goes about expressing these arguments is what turns people against him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhile it may seem tacktful and distasteful, it’s interesting to see that the media and others immediatly jumped to conclusions that henchmen wearing camoflauge and ski masks were terrorists.
\nThe New York Post actually called Muhammad a terrorist in their headline: ‘Terrorist’ wrestles after bombing By Don Kaplan
\nWhether or not this was planned from the beginning or not, WWE and Hassan have used this incident to more adequatly tell the story of Hassan’s struggles in America as an Arab-American.
\nIf you have a chance to watch Smackdown tonight – do so. Apparently Hassan cut a great promo Tuesday night on the media and people who generalize.<\/p>\nMuhammad enters admist signs that read: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Get the hell out of America Hassan\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153U Suck\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and USA chants
\nI stand here tonight, probably the last true patriot in America
\nI stand here tonight perhaps even a martyr against tyranny and injustice
\nBecause the fact is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I am an American professional wrestler
\nBut because of my heritage, because of my background, because of who my ancestors were \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m labeled, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re labeled terrorists, terrorists. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a terrorists
\nWell it must be true
\nIts gotta be true because its right here in black and white
\nIn a reputable source like The New York Post
\nYou don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe me?
\nHere it is: Terrorist wrestles after bombing
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a terrorist, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re terrorists, we wrestled after a bombing
\nWell mister Don Kaplan.
\nHave you ever met Don Kaplan? Have you ever spoke to Don Kaplan? Have you ever spoke to Don Kaplan on the phone?
\nWell I never have either, so if Don Kaplan of the New York Post has never met us or talked to us, how does he know we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re terrorists<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAlso, read WWE’s<\/A> response to the incident.
\nIt will be interesting to see how the media covers this story after tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Thursday WWE aired a promo featuring several men in black ski masks along with Arab-American wrestler Muhammad Hassan. You may have seen some of the coverage already, but WWE was ripped on by numerous media outlets (who don’t understand wrestling at all). The problem with the promo and bit was that it aired the … Continue reading Muhammad responds<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-3q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}