Lowe's has pulled its ads from TLC's "All-American Muslim" just as the show was being attacked as "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values." Alyssa Rosenberg is furious:
[T]he idea that Muslims deserve to be judged by a majority of believers rather than a small minority, is all you have to believe is true to support the show. I’ve never really understood why Muslims in particular shouldn’t have that last right. Should all depictions of Christians include references to the Inquisition, religion-inflected colonialism, and anti-gay hate crimes? Is the truest way to depict Catholics to look at the faith from the perspective of Cardinal Law and the pedophiles he protected? Do we judge all Jews by a car accident in Crown Heights or Baruch Goldstein? Lowe’s fallen prey to this kind of thinking made clear whose its most prized customers are. And acting on the principals of solidarity that motivate Russell Simmons, this homeowning Jew is glad she bought her washer-dryer from Home Depot.
Adam Serwer nods:
[Islamophobes] biggest fear is that shows like "All-American Muslim" will succeed at fostering the idea that Islam and American values are not necessarily in conflict. After all, if non-Muslim Americans begin to see American Muslims as being like themselves, then it becomes far more difficult to argue that Muslims' rights should be curtailed, that Muslims should be treated with greater suspicion than other Americans, or that Muslims shouldn't be able to build houses of worship on their own private property. It also becomes much harder to sustain a million-dollar industry devoted to persuading the country that Muslims as a whole are dangerous.
We've discussed the show previously here.
The Dish 