Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.To fans of the Fox hit drama “24,” the sound of a ticking clock could only mean one thing: It’s going to be a long day for Jack Bauer- the character considered to be “the” action hero of the post-Sept. 11 society, played by Kiefer Sutherland.

As the sixth season of “24” commenced with a special two-night premiere event, viewers found Bauer and the rest of his counterterrorism unit cohorts fighting a familiar enemy: an Islamic terrorist group.

It’s the third time in the show’s six-year history Muslims have been the perpetrators of terrorist attacks against America, or as “24” fans refer to it, they’re the ones “getting on Jack’s bad side.” All jokes aside, the show’s sixth season has come under scrutiny from special interest groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who have protested the show’s negative portrayal of Muslims in previous seasons.

In a Jan. 19 CNN article, CAIR spokeswoman Rabiah Ahmed said the day after the sixth season’s premiere concluded with an Islamic terrorist group successfully detonating a nuclear bomb in a Los Angeles suburb, she was “afraid to go to the grocery store” in fear of a person not being able to “differentiate between fiction and reality.”

This being said, one must ask whether “24” has contributed to people’s association of Muslims with the war on terror.

Cecile Van de Voorde, an assistant professor in criminal justice, said she believes the show has been detrimental to the public’s perception and understanding of terrorism.

Van de Voorde said she disapproves of the show because it extends misconceptions in part because “reality is conveniently forgotten” when watching “24.”

“There is enough drama unfolding every day around the world,” Van de Voorde said. “I think it would behoove media outlets (especially Fox Corp.) to first portray terrorism adequately and objectively in its news departments before they invest millions in the production of ‘thrilling’ fictional shows that provide more propaganda than entertainment.”

In the midst of recent criticism, Fox network executives issued a statement Jan. 17 stating that “24” has made a concentrated effort to portray groups as being multidimensional.

Whether this is the case, Manochehr Dorraj, a political science professor, said he thinks the press and media demonize each other during wars to mobilize public opinion for a war effort.

“It would be much easier to think of the other side (your ‘enemy’) as fully human, as noble and as virtuous as yourself,” Dorraj said.

But Dorraj said the media sometimes changes this view.

“Instead, it’s easier to kill them than promote them as humans with hopes, dreams and virtues,” he said.

Professors aren’t the only ones sounding off on the issue. Danielle Richter, a senior entrepreneurial management major, said the show’s negative depiction of Muslims plays on the feeling that the majority of the American public does not come in regular contact with Muslims.

Richter, who is the president of the Muslim Student Association, said she thinks the media and the government have generated and continue to feed the stereotype of Muslims being strange and out of touch with American beliefs.

“It’s very easy to see something on television, and believe it to be true,” Richter said “If you have no basis of comparison, and if you are being encouraged to believe that from everyone else.”

While some people might be up in arms over “24” and its recent story lines, rabid “24” fans such as junior Kyle Williams said he thinks the show’s portrayal of Islamic terrorists is pivotal because it accurately depicts the current global situation.

In response to a Jan. 15 ABC News article that suggested former al-Qaida camps watched American entertainment such as “24” to get ideas for potential terrorist acts, Williams, a political science and English major, said America needs to look other places than “24” if they want to cut off resources available to terrorist organizations.

“On Sept. 11, terrorists used our own planes as weapons against us. I think that if we want to stop providing America’s enemies with supplies, there are more important places to start than network programming,” he said.

Van de Voorde had a different opinion.

She said she thinks news and entertainment media has allowed terrorist groups to capitalize on the emotions expressed by the public after being exposed to terrorist attacks.

“Since the main objective of the jihadist networks that are targeting U.S. and Western interests is to wage a psychological warfare,” Van de Voorde said she thinks, “we have in effect allowed them to remain in the spotlight much longer than necessary and done them a favor.”

Whether or not people agree with “24” and its storylines, Sutherland signed an extension to do the show for three more seasons as well as to adapt it into a feature film, according to an April 10 MTV News article.

As the debate to whether “24” has negatively depicted people of Islamic faith continues on, one thing is for certain: Sutherland’s character, as archetypical as it may be, will continue to save America against terrorists of all races, ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs for the perceivable future.

If Jack Bauer isn’t going to do it, who else will?

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.