{"id":136,"date":"2008-12-08T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-08T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims.html"},"modified":"2008-12-08T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-08T07:00:00","slug":"the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims.html","title":{"rendered":"The Simpsons meet the muslims"},"content":{"rendered":"

First there was Omar Shamsoon<\/a> – now, The Simpsons<\/i> have an episode that introduces a muslim family from Jordan – you can watch it for free online:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

I confess to being a bit disappointed, though. The satire felt forced; it would have been much more effective in the earlier seasons when they were able to skewer things with a deft touch and not getting all preachy. The portrayal of Islamophobia was literally cartoonish and probably didn’t contribute meaningfully to the debate on prejudice and faith, but it was good for a few laughs. Even the Aladdin-carpet dream sequence was woefully short – and also a hugely wasted opportunity, given that Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer, among others) actually voiced the Genie<\/a> in Robin Williams’ absence for the (mediocre) Aladdin<\/i> sequel The Return of Jafar<\/i>. <\/p>\n

The subplot with Lisa’s “myPod” was funny in some ways (especially the unboxing of the myBill) but still largely a distraction. Maybe they were running a bit dry, creatively speaking, and decided to combine these two concepts into one, but they both would have benefited much more from having dedicated episodes to each.<\/p>\n

A pleasant half hour of the Simpsons, but nothing memorable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First there was Omar Shamsoon – now, The Simpsons have an episode that introduces a muslim family from Jordan – you can watch it for free online: I confess to being a bit disappointed, though. The satire felt forced; it would have been much more effective in the earlier seasons when they were able to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[154,155,100,26,152,151,153],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dour-mullah","tag-aladdin","tag-entertainment","tag-islamophobia","tag-politics","tag-the-simpsons","tag-tv","tag-tv-series"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Simpsons meet the muslims - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Simpsons meet the muslims - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First there was Omar Shamsoon – now, The Simpsons have an episode that introduces a muslim family from Jordan – you can watch it for free online: I confess to being a bit disappointed, though. The satire felt forced; it would have been much more effective in the earlier seasons when they were able to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-08T07:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Simpsons meet the muslims - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Simpsons meet the muslims - City of Brass","og_description":"First there was Omar Shamsoon – now, The Simpsons have an episode that introduces a muslim family from Jordan – you can watch it for free online: I confess to being a bit disappointed, though. The satire felt forced; it would have been much more effective in the earlier seasons when they were able to…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2008-12-08T07:00:00+00:00","author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims.html","name":"The Simpsons meet the muslims - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-12-08T07:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-08T07:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-simpsons-meet-the-muslims.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Simpsons meet the muslims"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}