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Monday, December 12, 2011
Boomer with Attitude Is Bank of America joining Lowe’s in bowing to anti-Muslim bigotry?
Posted By John Grooms on Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 5:53 PM
The Florida Family Association (FFA), a far-rightwing, self-anointed Christian group, claims that its griping has led a number of large companies, including Charlotte-based Lowe’s and Bank of America, to pull their advertising from All-American Muslim, a TLC reality show about Lebanese families in Dearborn, MI.
Lowe’s has confirmed that it pulled its ads from the TLC show after hearing complaints. Bank of America’s PR folks have not responded to our repeated queries about the FFA’s claim. Bank of America could be innocent in this matter, but it doesn’t look good, as most companies usually fall all over themselves to promote their “commitment to diversity,” etc., etc. If Bank of America is indeed going along with the FFA’s anti-Muslim campaign, then that makes two of our city’s premiere “corporate citizens” that have chosen to bow to plain bigotry. You can’t cooperate with a bigoted campaign by a bigoted group and not be seen as bigoted.
One other company named by the FFA, Amway, denies that it has cut its ads on the show. Home Depot and Sweet ‘N Low both say that that they had simply only bought one commercial spot, rather than canceling ads.
All-American Muslim has been on TLC for about a month and has received very good reviews as an intelligent look at the lives of a group of Muslims living in Dearborn. Watch a trailer for the show below.
The FFA and its bigoted supporters, apparently can’t stand (or, more likely, can’t understand) the fact that there are a great many American Muslims who lead ordinary American lives — grocery shopping, coaching high school football, working regular jobs and so forth. For the ignoroids among us, however, Muslims can only be associated with one thing: terrorism. As is becoming clearer every day, huge segments of the American citizenry are, to be blunt, ill-educated as hell; that kind of massive ignorance constitutes a “market” of sorts. When, like the FFA, your business is to ramp up bigotry, a TV show that allows Americans to relate to Muslims in the U.S. is seen as a threat, and thus the hell-raising about All-American Muslim begins. The FFA states, “Clearly this program is attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to influence them to believe that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show.”
The Islamic Circle of North America is urging concerned citizens to call Lowe’s and protest their withdrawal of advertising: “We urge the American Muslim community and our friends, family, neighbors and all people of conscience to call Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock at (704) 758-2084 or Executive Support Mr. Andrew Kilby at (866) 900-4650 and respectfully complain about this decision.”
Here is the show's trailer:
Photo Credit: Hollywood Reporter
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