Basic Trope: A character is mistaken for, or wrongly accused of being, a terrorist.
- Straight:
- Karim is of Muslim faith and is accused by Bob of being a terrorist.
- Karim accuses Ryan of being a terrorist.
- Singh is a Sikh and is accused by Carol of being an Islamic terrorist.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob accuses Karim of being radicalized at a Wahhabbi Madrassa in Yemen in 1984 and then traveling to Afghanistan in in 1986 to fight the Soviets up until their eventual withdrawal in 1989 and then living in Pakistan while establishing further contacts before traveling to Bosnia in 1993 to fight the Serbs while learning advanced bomb tactics prior to leaving for Sudan in 1995 to join Al Qaeda and being ordered by Bin Laden to infiltrate the United States and sneak a dirty bomb into an airport. Karim replies with a Flat "What".
- Bob is racist and thinks all Muslims are terrorists, or Karim thinks all Westerners are terrorists.
- Karim and Ryan both accuse each other of being terrorists.
- Downplayed:
- Karim is racially profiled at the airport and gets questioned by law enforcement on a routine basis because he happens share the same name with a suspect.
- Bob is a Gentile flying to Israel on El Al, and thus subject to a pre-flight interview before boarding.
- Karim is an Game Master for Shadowrun and lost his campaign notes, which ended up in the hands of the police. The police question him thoroughly, realize their mistake, give him back his notes and make their apologies, prompting Karim to joke that "Yes, these look scary out of context, thanks for giving them back, I needed them".
- Karim is suspicious of Ryan, but he never thinks that Ryan definitely is a terrorist.
- Carol says to Singh, "You're not a terrorist, are you?"
- Justified:
- Karim has relatives with strong connections to various terrorist networks.
- Some of Bob's family was killed in 9/11, and he wrongly blames it on Middle Easterners (or similar).
- Karim is a Game Master running a Cyberpunk game, or a conspiracy game, or any subject that could be linked to terrorism if taken out of context, and his campaign notes ended up in the hands of the police. How professionally the police handle the situation may vary.
- All Westerners Karim has met up until Ryan have been terrorists, so he reflexively thinks Ryan must be one.
- Carol's bigotry towards Muslims stems mostly from ignorance, and this ignorance means she also can't tell Muslims and Sikhs apart.
- Ryan has a strong Irish accent, is coming from Belfast and The Troubles are still ongoing.
- Inverted:
- Karim waves off accusations that Ryan is a terrorist.
- Karim and his friends are on their way from their hotel to a gamer convention where they are going to cosplay as the operatives from Counter-Strike and Rainbow Six Siege - and in the street, some people mistake them for counter-terrorists.
- Karim opens fire wildly while screaming, "Glory to ISIS," but everyone dismisses Bob's warnings as Islamophobia.
- Bob, Karim, Ryan, Carol, and Singh are on a morally dubious Caper Crew and need a distraction - so they deliberately fabricate the image of generic Terrorists Without a Cause for themselves to confuse law enforcement, while in reality being Only in It for the Money.
- Subverted:
- Bob apparently mistakes Karim for a terrorist. Karim just smiles and detonates his suicide vest.
- Karim becomes very angry when he thought Bob called him a "dirty terrorist" but it turns out Bob actually said tourist.
- Karim thinks Ryan is a terrorist because of the Troubles. Ryan claims not to be a terrorist, but he turns out to have been lying.
- Carol is acting suspicious of Singh. It seems to be because she thinks he's an Islamic terrorist, but actually it's because he looks just like the guy who killed her parents.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob was just tripping out.
- Bob was lying to save face.
- ...Except that was actually Ryan's Evil Twin impersonating him to make Karim distrust Ryan.
- ...And that guy was an Islamic terrorist.
- Parodied:
- While Bob is shaking down the harmless Karim, several actual terrorists walk by and loudly talk about how they're going to hijack the plane.
- Bob accuses Karim, or Karim accuses Ryan, of being a terrorist - for Young Bosnia, the group that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand about 80 or 90 years before any of them were born.
- Zig Zagged: Karim (or Ryan, or Singh) is Ambiguously Evil — it's left unclear whether he's a terrorist or if Bob (or Karim, or Carol) is just prejudiced.
- Averted: No one mistakes Karim, Ryan, or Singh for a terrorist.
- Enforced: The writers wanted to do a Very Special Episode, and chose to deal with this subject.
- Lampshaded: "Oh great, not again. Listen guys, just because I'm from the Middle East doesn't mean I'm out to kill you. Get it through your heads!"
- Invoked: Karim decided to have a little fun by making people believe that he's a terrorist, while he's not.
- Exploited: Karim takes advantage of this trope by making Bob do whatever he wants, claiming that he's a real terrorist sent to assassinate Bob and his friends.
- Defied: Despite Bob's suspicion, he decides to shake it off and doesn't judge Karim by his looks.
- Discussed: "Look at that Arabian guy over there, with the big suitcase. He is so gonna be in a lot of trouble."
- Conversed:
- "I hate that 'Bob' character! He thought Karim was a terrorist just because he's Muslim!"
- "They did a thought-provoking special on prejudice in that episode where Karim thought Ryan was a Western terrorist."
- "I'm trying to make myself like Carol as a character, but it's hard after she assumed that Sikh guy was an Islamic terrorist."
- Deconstructed: Everyone avoids/hates Karim because they think he's a terrorist.
- Reconstructed: Until Alice makes friends with him, and the others realize that they've misunderstood him and apologizes.
- Implied:
- Karim is often treated with unnecessary suspicion, but it's never stated just why.
- Karim usually welcomes visitors with open arms, but seems suspicious of his one white visitor Ryan.
- Carol is usually very sociable but acts oddly suspicious around Singh.
- Played For Drama: The episode shows all the negative effects prejudice can have on people.
Back to Mistaken for Terrorist
