All American Muslim reality TV show
The hardware company Lowe's caused a backlash by withdrawing its advertising campaign from the reality TV show All American Muslim. It did so under intense pressure from right wing conservative groups that did not like the TLC channel showing peaceful ordinary Muslims going about their boring lives on TV.
Since mid-November 2011, the All American Muslim reality TV show follows the daily lives of five Muslim families in the city of Dearborn Michigan. Dearborn has the largest community of Muslims and Arabs in America. The families selected for the show do not represent the diversity of the Muslim community in America. In fact they do not represent even the diversity of Muslims in the city of Dearborn. All five families belong to the minority shiia branch of Islam and are of Lebanese origin. But the purpose of the show is not to represent Islam or Muslims in general, its purpose is to shed light on what problems and issues are specific to American Muslims: family, religion, culture, hijab, etc. Some people featured on the show are practicing Muslims who take their faith seriously while other people on the show do not really practice Islam and even have tattoos and piercings. Some women do wear the Islamic headscarf (hijab) some do not.
Such balanced portrayal was unacceptable to some American conservative groups: right after the diffusion of the first episode, TLC channel was flooded with heinous messages denouncing a campaign of propaganda in favor of Muslims and requesting the show to be shut down. To them Muslims are terrorists or terrorist sleeping cells and portraying them as ordinary people is making americans ignore their danger.
A lobbying campaign led by the Florida Family Association started targeting companies who advertise on the show. Lowe's was among the first advertisers to surrender to the wishes of the conservatives and withdraw its advertising from the program.
This started a wave of indignation on the blogosphere that soon propagated to the media and politicians. American society seems polarized about the issue: some people called for the boycott of Lowe's while other people called for the boycott of TLC. Even among Christian groups there were some who opposed the campaign against the show and were able to start a petition with 200,000 signatures calling on Lowe's to resume advertizing on the show.
As of the writing of this article on January 8th 2011, the show continues to air on TLC with seven episodes so far. Other companies followed Lowe's lead and pulled their advertizing while other companies continue to advertize without giving up to the pressure.
Since mid-November 2011, the All American Muslim reality TV show follows the daily lives of five Muslim families in the city of Dearborn Michigan. Dearborn has the largest community of Muslims and Arabs in America. The families selected for the show do not represent the diversity of the Muslim community in America. In fact they do not represent even the diversity of Muslims in the city of Dearborn. All five families belong to the minority shiia branch of Islam and are of Lebanese origin. But the purpose of the show is not to represent Islam or Muslims in general, its purpose is to shed light on what problems and issues are specific to American Muslims: family, religion, culture, hijab, etc. Some people featured on the show are practicing Muslims who take their faith seriously while other people on the show do not really practice Islam and even have tattoos and piercings. Some women do wear the Islamic headscarf (hijab) some do not.
Such balanced portrayal was unacceptable to some American conservative groups: right after the diffusion of the first episode, TLC channel was flooded with heinous messages denouncing a campaign of propaganda in favor of Muslims and requesting the show to be shut down. To them Muslims are terrorists or terrorist sleeping cells and portraying them as ordinary people is making americans ignore their danger.
A lobbying campaign led by the Florida Family Association started targeting companies who advertise on the show. Lowe's was among the first advertisers to surrender to the wishes of the conservatives and withdraw its advertising from the program.
This started a wave of indignation on the blogosphere that soon propagated to the media and politicians. American society seems polarized about the issue: some people called for the boycott of Lowe's while other people called for the boycott of TLC. Even among Christian groups there were some who opposed the campaign against the show and were able to start a petition with 200,000 signatures calling on Lowe's to resume advertizing on the show.
As of the writing of this article on January 8th 2011, the show continues to air on TLC with seven episodes so far. Other companies followed Lowe's lead and pulled their advertizing while other companies continue to advertize without giving up to the pressure.
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