Arab Americans Speak Against Sacha Baron Cohen's Oscar Stunt

This just in! Someone apparently finds innocent, lil' ol' Sacha Baron Cohen offensive!

In further late-breaking news, water is wet, the sky is blue, bacon is yummy and "Whitney" is still stupid.

Apparently, Cohen's titular military dictator  Adm. Gen. Shabazz Aladeen of the method-acting comedian's latest comedy "The Dictator" has already created a stir among the National Network for Arab American Communities, reports Entertainment Weekly. The cultural watchdog organization claims that the Jewish Cohen's iron-fisted ruler of the fictional Republic of Wadiya makes too much light of already negatively perceived stereotypes about Arabs.

Little fuss was made about Cohen dumping an urn of "Kim Jong-Il's ashes" all over Ryan Seacrest's tuxedo during Sunday's Academy Awards red-carpet parade, for which Cohen dressed in character. That clearly just crosses cultural boundaries into universal hilarity.

"Arabs are among the few cultures that Hollywood still exploits with impunity," wrote NNAAC director Nadia Tonova in a Huffington Post op-ed piece. "Routinely, we are profiled as unsavory or sultry characters - generally terrorists, dictators, sheiks, oil tycoons or Bedouins. But it's not just Hollywood that perpetuates this imagery. These stereotypes are promoted through the media, law enforcement, our courts, legislatures, Congress and our political candidates. They become an ugly message that trickles down to the general public: Arabs and Muslims are untrustworthy; they are un-American; the are...fill the blank."

I'll add one: members of the NNAAC collectively haven't had the concept of "trolling" explained, nor the rule "Don't feed the trolls."

Neither Paramount nor Cohen have commented concerning the red-carpet gag nor the outcry, but Tonova's op-ed goes on to claim that it's portrayals like Cohen's that lead to discrimination in the legal system, hate-crime violence and unfair immigration practices, to name just a few possible consequences.

Tonova quotes late Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren as saying, "It should be remembered that practically all aliens have come to this country because they like our land and our institutions better than those from whence they cam . . . We must see to it that no race prejudices develop and that there are no petty persecutions of law-abiding people."

Folks, call Cohen what he is: he's an accomplished character actor, and actually maybe a comedic genius on par with Andy Kauffman. But like Kauffman, he's also one of comedy's great trolls. His portrayals aren't largely what puts these ideas Tonova complains about in people's heads. The ideas were there in the first place. He just lights a match under the kindling.

What's more, a big reason he keeps pulling off these bits is because he keeps getting reactions like this. So, well done, NNAAC! Positive reinforcement!

And lest we all be reminded, we're talking about the same Jewish performer who in "Borat" concluded his movie by depicting "Kazakhstanis" hanging a Jew on a cross.

He's doing it "for the lulz," folks. In a sense, the internet wins again.