Fictionalizing a terrorist’s nationality is presumed to soften offensiveness.

Evidence

It has become increasingly common for the country of the terrorist characters in television dramas to go unnamed. This strategy rests on the assumption that leaving the nationality of the villain open eliminates the potential for offensiveness; if no specific country or ethnicity is named, then there is less reason for any particular group to be offended by the portrayal. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 155

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does naming a real country actually increase audience offense versus a fictional stand-in country like Qumar? Is there any empirical evidence or is this an untested industry assumption?