Feeling isolated and overwhelmed with her caretaking duties, a new mom struggles with post-partum depression. Another couple wrestles with the painful decision to give up a beloved pet when the wife's allergies become too severe. A woman in a third family experiences work-family conflicts when she is unable to pick up her kids from their first day at school.
An ordinary episode in just another voyeuristic reality television show, right? Apparently not, according to the Florida Family Association, which urged advertisers to boycott the show, All-American Muslim. In their words, "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." The implication is that by depicting some Muslims as human beings, even proud American citizens, we might forget the looming threat of terrorism everywhere. Because when they're not cheering on the local football team or working out at the gym, surely these Muslims of Dearborn, Michigan are also raising money to send a cousin to an al-Qaeda training camp or figuring out the best locations to plant a bomb in the Detroit Metro Airport.
The problem is not that groups like Florida Family Association want us to be alert to the signs of jihad,but that most Americans have no idea what the signs of jihad might look like. With a basic ignorance of the everyday lives of Muslims, Americans are more likely to view all symbols of Muslim life with fear, suspicion, and hatred: things like headscarves and mosques, for example. As blogger Spencer Ackerman wrote, in criticizing FBI training materials (since pulled) that urged FBI employees to be suspicious of devout Muslims, "Focusing on the religious behavior of American citizens instead of proven indicators of criminal activity like stockpiling guns or using shady financing makes it more likely that the FBI will miss the real warning signs of terrorism."
More disturbing than the Florida Family Association's hateful campaign, however, is the decision of major retailer Lowe's to pull its advertising from the program. In justifying their decision, a Lowe's spokesperson said, "Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lightning rod for many of those views. As a result we did pull our advertising." It is clear that All-American Muslim has become a lightning rod for intolerance, and by pulling its ads, Lowe's has aligned itself with attempts to exclude and marginalize American Muslims. And there is a danger in this for the retail giant's bottom line, since American Muslims have a purchasing power of more than $12 billion.
In a growing backlash, a petition calling for other companies to defend American values against bigotry and publicly denounce the move to pull advertising has already gathered more than 30,000 signatures. Adding political weight to this is Senator Ted Lieu of California's statement decrying Lowe's decision as "un-American" and "naked religious bigotry." Along with other public figures, including rap impresario Russell Simmons, Lieu has also raised the threat of a boycott, and possibly legislative action.
Reality TV programmers have increasingly combed America's subcultures to gain the attention of viewers. Little people. Exterminators. Preschool beauty pageants. But amid the sea of lousy reality TV programming that has come to dominate the television landscape, All-American Muslim sheds light on a population Americans should learn more about, not to be lulled into a false sense that there is no more terrorism, but to see that Muslims themselves are much more diverse than we think. Because in addition to meeting the devout, hijab-wearing Suehalia and Samira, we also meet their sister, tattooed, outspoken special education worker Shadia. Potential nightclub entrepreneur Nina, with her Shakira-like blonde mane and tight clothes, also shatters our stereotypes about Muslims.
If the example of history has been any indication (think Japanese internment campus in the United States during World War II), demonizing an entire population in our midst can only foster further hatred and misunderstanding. By highlighting the everyday problems American Muslims face, TLC's pioneering new show goes a long way toward finding common ground and fostering cultural understanding.
Follow Rachel Newcomb on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rachelnewcomb
Sahar Aziz: The Contradictions of Obama's Outreach to American Muslims
BTW: Rachel marry me;)
I doubt there are Muslims in Muslim countries haranguing people to embrace Western life. There is nothing wrong with everyone valuing their own way of life. It is not the duty of Americans to dilute our way of life to make it more appealing to outsiders; it is their duty to learn and assimilate if they want to be American.
It looks clear that Muslims are a threat to me, as a non-believer in their "Allah".
I have watched the show and think the men are way too macho!
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/fort_hood_shooting_a_tragedy
American Muslims condemned 9/11, too.
http://www.islamicity.com/articles/articles.asp?ref=am0109-335
So did a lot of Muslims around the world, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood:
http://kurzman.unc.edu/islamic-statements-against-terrorism/
Besides, if you haven't noticed: it's mostly non-Muslim Americans who are speaking out against this fiction-based prejudice directed toward fellow Americans who don't deserve it.
Out of millions of American Muslims, less than 200 have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism in the last decade, and other American Muslims were the number one source for turning them in to authorities.
http://sanford.duke.edu/centers/tcths/about/documents/Kurzman_Muslim-American_Terrorism_Since_911_An_Accounting.pdf
As a point of comparison, Americans in general, on the other hand, murder 15,000 or so other Americans, every single year, consistently.
Think about that.
After twelve straight years of introducing UN Resolutions, that usually passed and fortunately passed with less votes in 2010, that called for a worldwide ban on blasphemy on Christianity that would oblviously restrict the freedom of speech in non-Christian countries, Clinton was able to get the the Organization of Christian Cooperation to agree to U.N. Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18 that would allow the UN to look for further ways to stop the intolerance of religions without restricting free speech. The Resolution singles out Saudia Arabia for praise regarding the promotion of religious tolerance..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/25/blasphemy-resolution-pass_n_788305.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/istanbul-process-clinton_n_1152508.html
Unfortunately it will be hard to know what is being discussed at the conference as it's closed to the public and media. Those that have been allowed to attend by the State Dept can only do so after agreeing to abide by Chatham House Rules that forbids releasing anything about a specific delegation or quoting for attribution.
As I have said before I have a couple Muslim friends one from Egypt and the other a German descended from Iranian parents. They both are very kind people and easy to like. I realize we here in America have come to fear the Terrorists and because they are of a particular religion we tend to lump all of that religion into one group.
This program can help humanize Muslims
If the American Extremists can block All-American Muslim from being televised they win because the fear they promote remains.
This kind of bigotry was experienced by the blacks after slavery and again by the Japanese and Germans after WWII.
My Grandfather when asked by me about our ancestry said we were Irish and Black Dutch. I found out years later that Black Dutch was a way of saying German without saying German. My Grandfather was ashamed of that part of our ancestry.
I don’t want Muslims to be ashamed of telling people they are Muslims in this country. For them to do so shows us to be as Jesus was fond of saying, Hypocrites, because we say in our first amendment that we have freedom of religion. If you don’t accept other religions then there is no freedom of religion, and if there is no freedom to worship as you see fit then is there any freedom in reality.
I know only a couple Muslims but have found them to be very kind people that have the same goals in life I do and that is to make a living and care for our families.
This program sounds like a good idea for understanding the lives of people that you dont normally get to mix with.
Some countries have human rights issues with respect to women and others (religious minorities, etc.), and the United States is not one of them.
I don't know about some of the countries you mention, but I know both Pakistani and Iranian (Muslim) women ... and .... they're Muslim. They don't confuse the excesses of their countries' current governments, or of the relative handful of extremists in those countries, with the religion of Islam, itself.
Too bad some non-Muslims can't see that reality more clearly (others of us don't have any problem doing so).