What does a home improvement store have to do with Muslims? Well unless you've been out occupying your local neighborhood Wall Street, the fact that Americans of all faiths are standing up to bigotry by corporate America namely Lowes has been everywhere in the news.
Lowes bowed to calls from a fringe radical group in Florida Family Association (FFA) to pull advertising from TLC's newest reality show All-American M
uslim. The group sent letters to corporations pressuring them to pull their ads because, in fact, showing every day American Muslims doing normal mundane things like playing high school football, juggling their kids and work, worrying about being in your 30's and still single was not in their words, an accurate portrayal of how Muslims really are.
Now if TLC showed Muslim women being forced to veil or play a subservient role in their household, then I'm pretty sure the FL group would have no issue with the stereotyping of the "backward foreigners". Instead you have women like Nawal nervous about giving birth for the first time or Suehaila trailblazing her way across the Michigan political scene while wearing hijab.
In one of my favorite scenes, Fordson high school football coach Fouad Zaban accompanies his wife and daughters to a scarf store for some back-to-school shopping. He watches as his preteen daughter learns trendy ways to tie a hijab. His wife worries about watching her little girl grow up looking different than the other kids because she covers her hair. But as we watch the fabulously styled scarf-wearing women in the show, it's clear that looking different hasn't held them back.
Everyone from Russell Simmons to Jon Stewart has criticized Lowes for their very unAmerican act of discrimination and intolerance. Simmons actually backed his opinion with cold hard cash and bought out the ad space vacated by Lowes and Kayak(dot)com for his RUSH credit card. Stewart ridiculed the FFA group for their criticism of All-American Muslim in a hilarious tongue-in-cheek sketch demanding for a boycott of Lowes because they sell everything needed to make bombs. In this time when Islamophobia is so rampant, Simmons and Stewart are, without a doubt, heroes for standing up for Americans who happen to be Muslim.
All-American Muslim isn't controversial because it's a typical reality show where participants get drunk and sleep with each other. Just the opposite, it shows ordinary people living their normal boring lives in small town America. They have family dinners, they argue with each other, they go to their high school football games, and they try to balance kids, work, and life. Gee whiz would you look at that, Muslims are just like everyone else. Who knew?
Photo courtesy of: Adam Rose, TLC via GANNET
Lowes bowed to calls from a fringe radical group in Florida Family Association (FFA) to pull advertising from TLC's newest reality show All-American M
uslim. The group sent letters to corporations pressuring them to pull their ads because, in fact, showing every day American Muslims doing normal mundane things like playing high school football, juggling their kids and work, worrying about being in your 30's and still single was not in their words, an accurate portrayal of how Muslims really are.Now if TLC showed Muslim women being forced to veil or play a subservient role in their household, then I'm pretty sure the FL group would have no issue with the stereotyping of the "backward foreigners". Instead you have women like Nawal nervous about giving birth for the first time or Suehaila trailblazing her way across the Michigan political scene while wearing hijab.
In one of my favorite scenes, Fordson high school football coach Fouad Zaban accompanies his wife and daughters to a scarf store for some back-to-school shopping. He watches as his preteen daughter learns trendy ways to tie a hijab. His wife worries about watching her little girl grow up looking different than the other kids because she covers her hair. But as we watch the fabulously styled scarf-wearing women in the show, it's clear that looking different hasn't held them back.
Everyone from Russell Simmons to Jon Stewart has criticized Lowes for their very unAmerican act of discrimination and intolerance. Simmons actually backed his opinion with cold hard cash and bought out the ad space vacated by Lowes and Kayak(dot)com for his RUSH credit card. Stewart ridiculed the FFA group for their criticism of All-American Muslim in a hilarious tongue-in-cheek sketch demanding for a boycott of Lowes because they sell everything needed to make bombs. In this time when Islamophobia is so rampant, Simmons and Stewart are, without a doubt, heroes for standing up for Americans who happen to be Muslim.
All-American Muslim isn't controversial because it's a typical reality show where participants get drunk and sleep with each other. Just the opposite, it shows ordinary people living their normal boring lives in small town America. They have family dinners, they argue with each other, they go to their high school football games, and they try to balance kids, work, and life. Gee whiz would you look at that, Muslims are just like everyone else. Who knew?
Photo courtesy of: Adam Rose, TLC via GANNET
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