CAIR Calls on Critics to Highlight Muslim Stereotypes in FX's 'Tyrant'

The Council on American-Islamic Relations wants television reviewers to address what the group sees as inflammatory stereotypes in the new FX drama Tyrant.

The series, set to debut June 24, concerns a politically connected Arab-American (Adam Rayner) drawn back into his native land’s power struggle after 20 years in the U.S. His father is the dictator of a fictional Middle Eastern nation, and the man’s family deals with those ties in a variety of ways.

CAIR has issues with the very first episode of the series.

In the pilot of FX’s ‘Tyrant,’ Arab Muslim culture is devoid of any redeeming qualities and is represented by terrorists, murderous children, rapists, corrupt billionaires, and powerless female victims,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, who attended Wednesday night’s screening. “In ‘Tryant,’ even the ‘good’ Arab Muslims are bad … Unfortunately, ‘Tyrant’ will be seen by many viewers as an indictment of an entire culture.

CAIR has a history of complaining about Hollywood projects it says unfairly depict Arabs and/or Islam, including the 1998 terrorism thriller The Siege with Denzel Washington.