Normally, I’m pretty proud to be an American. To watch the country rally together when tragic events happen like 9-11 or most recently to see my own local community rally together after the Virginia Tech shooting and death of Officer Crouse. But, then…there these other days. Days where I’m reminded that although America prides itself on being a country of religious freedoms, it’s far from it. America is a christian nation, and that pains me.
If you haven’t heard TLC released a new show called “All-American Muslims” that traces 5 American Muslim families through their everyday lives.
One of the main emphasis on this show is all of these people have been born and raised in America. I think part of the
Bravo TLC!
goal is to dispel the belief that all Muslims are Arab and all of them are from the Middle East and just come here to blow us up. This could be further from the truth. And thank you TLC for helping clear up those false myths! (You’re almost redeeming yourself from showing things like Kate plus 8, 19 Kids and counting & Sister Wives)
I was SO excited when I first saw commercials for the show, but part of me knew it was too good to be true. No way were people just going to accept this and…gasp…learn something from it. Lowe’s has decided to pull its commercials from the show. I should mention along with several other companies. Why? That’s all I can really say, why as a business would you do this? Does Muslim dollars not spend as well as Christian dollars? Why aren’t you pulling your ads from 19 Kids and Counting which has a very prominent Christian theme? Why all the Christmas ads if you don’t want to be religious oriented?
From the article: Lowe’s, based in Mooresville, N.C., said it stands by its Sunday statement that it pulled the ads after the show became a “lightning rod for people to voice complaints from a variety of perspectives — political, social and otherwise.” Well, I’m making a social stand against Christianity. You going to pull your Christmas ads? What about store displays? Going to sell holiday trees rather than Christmas trees? No, because Christmas brings in too much money. The reason they feel that they can get away with this is because Muslims are an American minority and they just assume that non-Muslims are going to stand by and watch it happen without a word. Well, Lowes here’s some words from a non-Muslim, Use-to-be Lowes customer…I’ll no 
longer be shopping at your stores. And I’d encourage you, to also no longer shop at Lowes. Maybe you’re not a Muslim, but I don’t see this as a Muslim issue. I see this as an American issue. Our freedom of religion is being blatantly violated. Yes, they are a private company that can do whatever the heck they want, and yes, they will keep doing whatever they want unless customers lash out and show them that this hatred and discrimination will not be tolerated.
I’d like to sign off with one of my all time favorite quotes. A personal reminder of why you shouldn’t just sit silently by when people are being persecuted. Just because it doesn’t effect you, doesn’t mean it won’t one day.
“When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.”
-Friedrich Gustav Martin Niemöller
