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On the way to school this morning, I heard a story about Lowes (the home improvement store) and the television series, All-American Muslim. You can listen to the story (about three minutes) here.
I've never watched All-American Muslim. I hadn't even heard of the show. I've shopped at Lowes before, but doubt I will again.
Evidently, "the conservative group that got Lowe's to pull its ads from a reality TV show about American Muslims has been fighting for more than two decades against gay rights, strip clubs and most anything else that offends evangelical Christians."
Well, Mr. David Caton of the "Florida Family Association," you offend me. You offend me with your hatred, bigotry and misinformation.
Several politicians called the Florida Family Association a fringe hate group, a title Caton shrugged off, saying the group aims to "defend traditional American biblical values."
Traditional American biblical values? What, like burning witches and lynchings?
Caton suggests "99.9 percent of Muslims agree with the principles of Sharia law" and by nature, Islam requires a follower to be an extremist.
You wouldn't know anything about extremism, would you Mr. Caton?
Take a gander at the truth about Muslims in America. Of course, it's all to easy for haters to ignore the truth, isn't it? Haters have been ignoring the truth for a long, long time.
I love the country in which I was raised, a place in which different people have the right to be different--even if it requires struggle to gain and maintain that right.
The struggle is our greatest strength; the struggle keeps us honest.
I'm not sure where Mr. Caton lives, but it's not my America. If I had any advertising dollars, I'd call TLC right now and ask for an ad spot.
Well said, Aaron. Groups like this give all Christians a bad name. I live near where American Arab is filmed (Dearborn, MI). Last time I checked, we haven't had a "terrorist" incident in metro-Detroit, nor do those of the Islamic faith storm Christian churches in the area. We do, occasionally, have idiots like the Rev. Terry Jones show up in Dearborn and burn copies of the Koran.
I wonder how many of those good bible folk know that Muslims recognize Jesus as a prophet and recognize a lot of the old testament.
Scott - It's rather ridiculous, isn't it?
Sam - That would involve reading, not just being spoon-fed an interpretation of an ancient text.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Sam, but Islam is based off of Ishmael - the son of Abraham, who is the father of Judaism and Christianity. Yes, I did know that the Jesus is held as a prophet in Islam.
I always try and tell myself I shouldn't get angry about this stuff. I should just let it go, keep fighting the good fight.
But I can't. It's tragic. I mean, this is OUR country. Blargh.
Good on you, Aaron, for this post. Because man. Just... man.
Yep (very simplified ) three of the major world religions all worship the god of Abraham but hate fight and kill over how to do it.
Katey - Sometimes I pause, thinking "will this lead someone to not read my stories" and then I wake up, realizing I don't want that kind of someone reading my stories, anyway.
Man indeed.
I'm glad I read this tonight, since I was planning a trip to Lowe's on Thursday to buy a mini-fridge. Guess I'll hit Home Depot instead.
Bigotry and willful ignorance infuriate me. I'm not real happy with a lot of things in any given religion, but this sort of thing is the dregs.