Three months ago, Ed was in an uproar because home improvement retail chain Lowe pulled its ads from TLC’s reality show All-American Muslim, caving to pressure from the right-wing group Florida Family Association.
The FFA said it objected to the show, which follows five Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan, because it advances Islamic fundamentalism by failing to portray Muslims as radical jihadists.
The move by Lowe’s sparked anger from lawmakers and prompted calls for a boycott.
New Jersey’s largest newspaper The Star-Ledger added its support in a blunt and forceful editorial that concluded, “for as long as Lowe’s continues to ‘defer’ to discrimination, let’s boycott this chain.”
But even as the show’s buzz reached its height, fewer than a million people were tuning in on Sunday nights. And unfortunately, the show was cancelled yesterday after one season. That’s too bad, for as Dearborn, Michigan, Mayor John B. (Jack) O’Reilly, Jr. told Ed on Dec. 14, 2011, the program showed that “Muslim-Americans are like all other Americans. They practice their faith according to the way they choose to. They interpret it in their own ways. And they have the same concerns, interests that we do. They’re just like us in terms of what they think about on a day-to-day basis and what they do on a day-to-day basis.” By the way, despite intense pressure to reinstate their advertising, Lowe’s never did.
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