All-American Muslim Cancelled

By: American Decency Staff

TLC announced last week that they would not be renewing their controversial "All-American Muslim" program, which ADA, as well as other organizations (particularly Florida Family Association), had criticized for whitewashing over the radical doctrines subscribed to by many Muslims. TLC cited low ratings as their reason for dropping the show. Total viewers had dropped by more than half over the course of the 8 episode season. The program received the most publicity when the home improvement store Lowe's dropped its advertising due to pressure from ADA and Florida Family Association's readers' emails, including some from many of you. Here's how we explained the show after its premier: While there were some elements to this show that were somewhat alarming – i.e. a man being forced to convert to Islam to marry his Muslim bride and a public school following Islamic law – I'm not afraid that these families are going to bomb a stadium or a shopping mall. What I am afraid of is that people will look at these families who are trying to maintain aspects of their culture while becoming a part of America and will forget that, while these may be perfectly warm and fuzzy people, there are many others who take the Koran more literally when it says, "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them, (Quran 8:12)." As you would expect, we were immediately labeled as Islamaphobes and closed-minded bigots by people who refused to open their minds to our position. Columnist Leonard Pitts described our friends at FFA as "one of those cartoonish bands of cranks and paranoids who see danger beneath every hijab." The Detroit Free Press misrepresented our views as well, "According to some conservatives, the TV show should have portrayed Muslim-Americans as radicals instead of as normal Americans." One of Yahoo!'s contributors called those of us who opposed the show "right wing extremists." Those are just a few examples of the folks who like to call us radicals. Why?  Because we call other people radicals. The difference is that  we have facts to point to. We made the following point in an earlier piece regarding our label of "bigot." TLC follows these families around and calls them "All-American Muslims," but Nadal Malik Hassan is an American Muslim too. In fact, he was under an oath to protect and defend the United States and its Constitution at the time that he was walking around Fort Hood shooting people and shouting "Allahu Akbar." Anwar al-Awlaki was also an American Muslim before joining al Qaeda and helping recruit terrorists responsible for attacks in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. Another American Muslim, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, opened fire on a recruiting office in Little Rock, AR killing Private William Long. His justification? "The attack was justified according to Islamic Laws and the Islamic Religion. Jihad—to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims.â€Â These men were extremists and bigots. They saw it as their religious duty to kill as many people as they could who didn't agree with them. We just want to make sure people don't forget that those kinds of Muslims do exist. ========================================================== To support our efforts please click here or mail your gift to American Decency Association (ADA), PO Box 202, Fremont, MI 49412. American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

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