The decision by Lowe's Home Improvement to pull ads from TLC's "All-American Muslim" after complaints from a right-wing Christian fundamentalist group in Florida was shocking. It was disturbing mainly because Lowe's caved to hate so quickly.
Let's be clear, what the Florida Family Association is spewing is bigotry and hate. They claim that by having a show depicting the everyday lives of average Muslim families, TLC is attempting to "manipulate Americans." Their whole argument is simply outlandish.
Many progressives have pushed back. CREDO, MoveOn and Change.org have posted petitions targeting Lowe's for their ridiculous behavior. I have signed all three, just for good measure. People for the American Way, The Nation, Reps. Keith Ellison, Chris Murphy and John Conyers, along with many other progressive voices, have condemned Lowe's actions. Even Jon Stewart ran a segment eviscerating the lone right-wing nut group raising their ridiculous objections to this show.
But just to put it in context, I'm going to go a step farther. Lowe's says it supports diversity and doesn't want to take a position on hot button issues like "All-American Muslims" having a normal day out shopping. So how does Lowe's feel when I slightly change the initial complaint from the Florida Family Association? Below is an excerpt from the actual letter that the Florida Family Association was using:
The Learning Channel's new show All-American Muslim is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law...
Many situations were profiled in the show from a Muslim tolerant perspective while avoiding the perspective that would have created Muslim conflict thereby contradicting The Learning Channel's agenda to inaccurately portray Muslims in America.
Clearly this program is attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to influence them to believe that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show.
I encourage you to stop supporting this show with your advertising dollars.
But I changed a few of the words, simply out of concern that portrayals of normal Christians "manipulate Americans" into ignoring the very real threat posed by anti-gay Christians:
Television shows with Christian characters are propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Christians who are advancing anti-gay beliefs...
Many situations were profiled in various shows from a Christian tolerant perspective while avoiding the perspective that would have created Christian conflict thereby contradicting television's agenda to inaccurately portray Christians in America.
Clearly this program is attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of anti-gay bigotry and to influence them to believe that being concerned about the anti-gay Christian threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show.
I encourage you to stop supporting shows with Christian characters with your advertising dollars.
When you read it that way, it seems absurd, and rightfully so -- because it is. But the fact is that there are anti-gay Christians. A leading presidential candidate released a gay-baiting ad, the Family Research Council is identified as an anti-gay hate group, and anti-gay bullying has cost many LGBT youth their lives.
You may reactively want to point out that various Christian organizations are not anti-gay, to which I'll point out that the vast majority of American Muslims are not seeking shariah to be codified in any way in the American legal justice system. In fact, you could compare that with the myriad of Christian zealots who are attempting to join Church and State in the political and legal sphere through their myopic activism. There are constant examples of strong arming with the meaningless signing of pledges, posting the Ten Commandments in courtrooms, and rallying for Christian prayer in public schools. The double standard and intolerance is a projection of intolerant values, clear and simple.
But as it stands, Lowe's looks bad. Lowe's looks really bad and they should feel ashamed. But unless they reverse their decision to discriminate against Americans who are Muslims, they should be boycotted, protested and shamed. To that end, it's only fair that they be consistent.
Follow Asher Huey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AsherHuey
A question for you: What would your response be if a group of "Chrisitian" or "Jewish" or "HIndu" terrosists committed a similar act as 9/11? The rational response is anger of course. But against an entire religion? Of course not...particularly the two former religions...not in this country at least. I am angry about 9/11 and am glad Bin Laden was killed. However, with regard to muslims, think of all the movies depicting muslims or arabs as terrorists. If jews, israelis, or christians were depicted in a negative way, people would be outraged. Tolerance and encouraging immigrants to assimilate and giving them time to assimilate into our culture here is the best way towards promoting a peaceful world. We can all coexist and we must coexist or there will be nothing
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/12/21/2865056/lowes-stands-by-decision-to-pull.html
Also, the decision maybe, just maybe, had something to do with that show's bad ratings which continue to plunge.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-201112211659reedbusivarietynvr1118047824dec21,0,6443015.story
Finally, does nobody else find a disconnect in the idea that such a hateful, bigoted organization as Lowes would put their advertising money into a show about Muslims in the first place? I would have to ask anyone who doesn't exactly how much of their money has gone into supporting pro-Muslim TV shows.
Most American Muslims are decent people, but when when a dead OBL has an over 50% approval rating in the putative western-friendly Pakistan, it is fair to say there is a significant Muslim problem in the world. Trying to equate a real, mortal threat to arguments you have against the Christian majority of Americans over gay marriage is absurd in the extreme.
Let's take a quick look.
Regarding Homosexuality, many American Muslims are not only tolerant of homosexuality, but they support full LGBT rights. Quite a few Muslim commenters on HuffPost have said so, and at least a couple of Muslims who are HuffPost Bloggers have said so.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melody-moezzi/muslim-states-must-suppor_b_882930.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ibrahim-abdulmatin/muslim-americans-gay-marriage_b_884759.html
Terrorists aren't exactly monks; they're conducting what they feel is a military insurgency, just like Christians do (see: Army, Irish Republican).
Seriously.
http://cpost.uchicago.edu/
Besides, when a terrorist does something "in the name of" their religion, as the assertion goes, this tells us about the terrorist ... not about the religion (see: Breivik, Anders Behring).
If Islam supported or condoned terrorism, we'd see a LOT more of it from the world's 1.6 Billion Muslims, obviously.
http://clarifyingislam.com/2011/04/30/600-page-fatwa-condemning-terrorism-by-internationally-respected-islamic-legal-scholar/
American Muslims are our fellow Americans. Like the rest of us, I'd say they deserve to be evaluated based on facts -- and, like the rest of us, they deserve to be evaluated individually.
Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has 57 Islamic members. No OIC countries were rated as a "Full Democracy" under its guidelines, and only 3 of the 57 members were rated as a "Flawed Democracy."
The International Humanist and Ethical Union had this to say about CDHRI:
CDHRI limits Human Rights, Religious Freedom and Freedom of Expression. It concludes: "The Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam is clearly an attempt to limit the rights enshrined in the UDHR and the International Covenants. It can in no sense be seen as complementary to the Universal Declaration."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Declaration_on_Human_Rights_in_Islam
"...They refuse to understandÂ, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgivinÂg. They are fully aware of God's death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And, worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. (Romans 1:24-32)
"If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives."Â (Leviticus 20:13)
"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 )"
Now, just imagine Rick Santorium get elected as our next president.
"How tolerant do you think Muslim culture is of homosexualÂity?"
Do you have anything whatsoever to say about the topic at hand?
I'm not Muslim, or religious at all -- so I have no vested interest in who (which religious group in the U.S.) is doing what, per se. As long as people are just living their own lives, I'm cool.
However, I agree: there's all this furor about how Muslims supposedly "are", with exactly, as far as I can see, *zero* evidence, from the day-to-day lives of our millions of fellow Americans who worship as Muslims, that they're actually like that.
I know Muslims personally, Muslims comment on HuffPost; there are lots of YouTube videos from Muslims and Muslim leaders, lots of American Muslims blog, there's now this TV show, etc. ... and in terms of what American Muslims are actually saying and doing ... they seem like regular Americans ... "just Muslim".
A year or so ago I came to the realization that the professional anti-Islam industry is making up a lot of stuff about Muslims, and that naive people are buying it.
In a year, I've seen nothing to change my mind, and a whole lot to confirm that opinion.
And I agree, regarding how a lot of Christians are behaving -- it's like, what part of "love your neighbor as yourself" don't they understand?
Not all Christians are like that, of course.
Just the extremists.
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Bald assertion, without reasoning or argument. Guilt by labeling.
Objecting to pro Islam propaganda does not preclude objecting to anti gay Christian propaganda. Any company that wants to avoid controversy would avoid supporting either kind of show.
Lowe's error was in supporting All American Muslim in the first place.
"but the show realistically demonstrates that the nation's 6-7 million American Muslims lead lives that dispel the negative stereotypes about Islam and American Muslims."
"Sadly, however, due to a shameful effort by a vocal few,"
"condemning an entire faith community for its errant fanatics"
These are all assertions that are debatable, but no argument is offered on their behalf, beyond asserting them as obviously true--some of which I dispute here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Jan_Allen_McDaniel/all-american-muslim-celeb_b_1155494_124442543.html
a show about the Amish is pro-amish propagandaÂ.
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Context matters. There is a very large, very polarized controversy about Islam in America presently. National comment on things Islamic get categorized as either pro, anti or objective.
Comment about the Christian Right is similarly polarized.
Debbie Schlussel claims that TLC openly admitted to a pro Islam slant in the show.
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/40176/whitewashing-suehaila-amen-tlc-muslim-reality-show-star-is-hezbollahhamas-supporter-cair-activist/
Even if you agree with the FFA's basic premises about Islam, which you would say are reflective of Islamism (based on seeing hundreds of comments from you regarding that distinction), I'm in agreement with the comment you quoted (re: the FFA's bigotry), for the following reasons:
1. Even if there is a contingent of Muslims in the U.S. who support aggressive Islamism, the assertion that aggressive Islamism is reflective of "Islam" (as the FFA states) has no observable basis in fact. It seems to be the exact equivalent of suggesting, back when such shows first came out, that shows about African-Americans were (effectively) "propaganda", because they didn't depict criminals and broken-families, etc. Factually, far more American Muslim families live like the families depicted on All-American Muslim (many), than those who overtly support aggressive Islamism (quite possibly zero, based on observation and available information).
2. For the FFA to aggressively seek to change public opinion, including via their successful manipulation Lowe's advertising choices, with an aggressive anti-Muslim contact campaign, based solely on the FFA's unproven allegations regarding Muslims, seems to me to be the very definition of bigotry.
Please let me know, specifically, if, and how, you disagree.
Thanks.
1. What do Muslims and African Americans have in common in America beyond the fact that they are both minority groups--a religious minority and a racial minority? Not much. Blacks were segregated for the color of their skin, Muslims are criticized for what they choose to believe. One can't be changed, the other can. Apples and oranges.
Pro Islam propaganda and anti Islam propaganda will raise howls from the opposition, and both camps howl at objective criticism. Where is the bigotry in that? Each side strongly believes they are right. Someone needs to apologize for strong belief of either kind?
You strongly believe that Islam is just fine as it is--that nothing about it needs fixing. I disagree, but have no bad name to call you simply because you believe that very strongly. I believe that Islam's updating mechanism rusted in place long ago and has produced a broken religion that is unable to correct itself--it is essentially rudderless, stuck in outdated doctrines supporting misogyny and dreams of world domination through jihad. Is that opinion bigotry?
2. You assert without evidence: "For the FFA to aggressiveÂly seek to change public opinion ... seems to me to be the very definition of bigotry."
Your "reasoning" for this charge is another assertion without evidence--"based solely on the FFA's unproven allegationÂs regarding Muslims". How do we know that FFA's allegations are unproven? Because you say so?
So a boycott really doesn't work for me.
I wonder, though, if pressure might be put on Lowe's to reconsider its decision and sign on as a sponsor for say, next season.
On another note, I've tried to watch "All-American Muslim," and while I applaud the purpose of the show which seems to be to show American Muslim people as being just like everybody else, I gotta say that it's kind of a boring reality show. Just like most American reality shows. But hey, maybe that's the point, right? Just as all-American and as boring as the rest of us ...
First, advertising on the show was ok, as long as no one complained.
Then someone did and they caved immediately. If they really believe that the show is somehow harmful and that their decision to pull their advertising was the correct one then they should stand by that decision.
If negative pressure from the anti-hate side changes their minds again, then we will know that they have no principles except the pursuit of the almighty dollar.