The return of "Homeland"- series 3

Whilst I must confess to a fondness for the drama series "Homeland"( now on its third series in both the US and UK, it looks as if I'm in good company- even President Barack Obama has openly admitted to being a fan of this hit series, often watching reruns on cable when he should be strictly speaking be attending to matters of state( given that only two US Presidents- James K. Polk and Franklin D. Roosevelt -arguably died of overwork, I'd say let him goof off a bit), there is an undertone that has troubled me deeply- namely the implicit implication that Nicholas Brody (ironically played by British actor Damian Lewis), former US Marine sergeant and congressman now on the run for the alleged car bombing of the CIA headquarters)'s conversion to Islam(albeit against his will whilst being held by Al Qaeda/Taliban) implies that he has been "turned" by Jihadists( a sort of Islamic Manchurian Candidate if you will).

Is the series implying that being a good Marine or even a loyal American is essentially incompatible with also being a practising Muslim-? similar charges of dual loyalties have been against two religious minority groups- namely Catholics( pace the Kennedy presidential campaign as recently as 1960) and to a lesser extent Jews.

Given that the motto of the United States Marine Corps is "Semper Fidelis"- meaning "Always Faithful"(not just to the Corps or even the Constitution itself but ultimately America itself) and in common with other branches of the US military are expected to"bear true faith and allegiance" and that the Corps had its own history of exclusion(based thankfully not on religion but on race- as recently as 1942, blacks were banned from its rank- just as they were from its British counterparts, the Royal Marines until 1968), one would hate to think that the show's producers are implying that Muslims( of whom we must assume are at least present in its ranks) are de facto disloyal!

Anybody think as I do?

Terry

I kind of want to start watching some shows. I think Scandal looks interesting, and so too does The Americans. I would probably check out Homeland, maybe I will soon.

I don't think the show is saying Muslims are inherently bad Americans at all. Danny Galvez is a Muslim character who works for the CIA, and is not a secret double-agent. It's not the fact that Brody is a Muslim, but the fact that the terrorist's converted him. And when you look at it, there are Muslims, and then there are extremist Muslims. He wasn't converted by a group of Muslims. He was converted by terrorists that follow their own version of Islam, a violent version. So he's one of them. That's how I've looked at it. I always thought the show was more anti-terrorist, not anti-Muslim.

Now I'm going to shamelessly plug my Homeland parody/edit video... enjoy!