Lowe's Refuses to Reinstate Ads on Pro-Muslim TV Show
Amid mounting criticism, home improvement giant Loweâs Cos. Inc. is sticking by a decision to pull its ads from the TV reality show âAll-American Muslim,â caving to pressure from the Florida Family Association, a conservative evangelical group that boasts it has persuaded more than 60 companies to cancel their ads too.
The weekly show on TLC depicts the lives of five Muslim families living in Dearborn, Mich. Show spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg says it has slightly over a million viewers per episode.
By depicting Muslims as ordinary Americans, the program âriskily hides the Islamic agendaâs clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values,â the Florida Family Association (FFA) website says. The site was hacked into and shut down by Anonymous today.
FFA, a virulently anti-gay group, was founded 24 years ago. Itâs led by David Caton, who claims there are 35,000 members. In an interview with the Associated Press today, Caton compared Muslims to snakes, saying the show misleads Americans in the same way as any show that reports snakes are good family pets without describing the venomous ones.
There has been a recent spike in , who make up an estimated 0.6% of the U.S. population.
FFA âs online campaign urging people to E-mail their protests to sponsors of âAll-American Muslimâ has been successful with dozens of major companies, the website boasted before it was hacked. Among firms that have pulled ads are Amazon and McDonald's, according to the website.
But Loweâs is the only company that has confirmed it canceled due to the FFA campaign. Loweâs posted a non-apology on its Facebook page: âIndividuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lightning rod for many of those views. As a result we did pull our advertising on this program.â
The Loweâs action prompted actress Mia Farrow and entrepreneur/hip-hop guru Russell Simmons to call for a boycott of the massive home improvement store, based in Mooresville, N.C. On Twitter, actor Kal Penn asked readers to sign a petition at signon.org supporting âAll-American Muslim.â It has gathered more than 13,000 signatures so far.
And the FFA-instigated ad cancellations also sparked anger from political leaders. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota released a statement blasting Loweâs for opting âto uphold the beliefs of a fringe hate group and not the creed of the First Amendment⌠. This is disappointing since the success of âAll-American Muslimâ shows how ready the country is to learn about Muslims as Americans. This probably makes hate mongers uncomfortableâas they should be.â
California State Sen. Ted Lieu posted a copy of a letter he wrote to Loweâs on his website. He called the action âbigoted, shameful and un-American,â and asked the company to apologize to Muslim Americans. If the company doesnât apologize this week, Lieu may endorse a boycott or take action in the California legislature, âat the very least urging them to apologize and reconsider . . . Weâre researching right now what other steps we can take legislatively,â Ray Sotero, Lieuâs communications director, told Hatewatch.
And leaders of a coalition of Arab American nonprofits said today they will no longer accept donations from Loweâs because âthe Loweâs position does not align with our values,â according to Nadia Tonova, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities. She announced the change on WDETâs The Craig Fahle radio show in Detroit. The group represents 22 grassroots nonprofits that have accepted donations from Loweâs to support community volunteer projects. Tonova said Loweâs decision perpetuates Islamophobia, a problem thatâs âvery much alive and well in the United States.â
The action against âAll-American Muslimâ was far from the first FFA foray into pressure in the service of bigotry. The group ignited a campaign for companies to drop their sponsorship of Teen Nickâs âDeGrassi: The Next Generationâ because it has a transgender character. FFA also has protested âGay Daysâ at Disneyland and spurred a deluge of E-mails protesting a course on âqueer theoryâ at the University of South Florida. The FFAâs version of morality has led to protests against sex-video ads in the AARP magazine and billboards that appeared too sexy.
Loweâs buying into the latest FFA pressure campaign will backfire, predicts Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. âItâs going to improve the ratings of the show,â he told Hatewatch. âNow itâs not just an issue of Muslims. With these celebrities and political leaders speaking up, itâs an issue of fairnessâbigots against the rest of us.â
The main problem is that groups such as the FFA âonly look at Islam and Muslims through the lens of extremists. Because this show doesnât have extremists, but just normal, mainstream Muslims, they think itâs not true,â he said.
The irony, Al-Marayati told Hatewatch, is that âthe FFA is pushing the Al-Qaeda narrative from the opposite side of the ideological spectrum. Theyâre guilty of the same thing as Muslim extremists in the Middle-East, insisting weâre in need of a cultural war. Only they think that American Christians who happen to be evangelicals are the only good people in the world. â