Amidst complaints the show would portray Muslim and Arab Americans in a stereotypical light, ABC Family has dropped plans for a pilot for Alice in Arabia, reports Buzz Feed.
The blog site quoted an ABC Family spokesperson as saying ““The current conversation surrounding our pilot was not what we had envisioned and is certainly not conducive to the creative process, so we’ve decided not to move forward with this project.”
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) had both written letters to ABC encouraging ABC to drop plans for the program.
The groups said Alice in Arabia “unabashedly perpetuate harmful stereotypes, orientalism and Islamophobia… The imagery and depiction of the respective communities as kidnappers and oppressors of women, reinforces harmful stereotypical depictions of the communities as thieves, criminals, persons who engage in violent acts, captives and/or persecutors.”
You can read about what lead up to ABC Family’s decision and reaction to it in Buzz Feed.
