Florida Family #fundie

Florida Family #fundie floridafamily.org

The Learning Channel's new show All-American Muslim is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law. The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.

One of the most troubling scenes occurred at the introduction of the program when a Muslim police officer stated "I really am American. No ifs and or buts about it." [...]

The first two episodes start off with Muslim youth complaining about non-Muslim Americans’ perception of them as extremists after 911. The show then reports on these youths’ daily, weekly and monthly prayer rituals. Many Imams who are at the head of these prayer rituals believe strongly in Islam and Sharia law. This TLC show clearly failed to connect the dots on this point but then again that appears to be their intent. [...]

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. [...]

73 comments

old comment by Nerikull

Wow, a bit of pot-kettle-black, hmm? A group of "Christian" fundamentalists complaining that a show about American Muslims doesn't show only "Muslim" fundamentalists.

The mirror doesn't go one-way in this case.

"One of the most troubling scenes occurred at the introduction of the program when a Muslim police officer stated 'I really am American. No ifs and or buts about it.' "

Troubling? Because a police officer who happens to be a Muslim states that he's an American first?

"Many Imams who are at the head of these prayer rituals believe strongly in Islam and Sharia law. This TLC show clearly failed to connect the dots on this point but then again that appears to be their intent."

*eyeroll* And this is any different from the rule of law most Christian fundies want for America? It's been said before: pot-kettle-black.

old comment by David B.

"propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law."

Says a group that wants to exclude gays from "freedom and liberty for all", i.e. who attacked Disney, the USF and Nickelodean for "promoting homosexuality", all on biblical grounds.

"The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish."

A bit like ignoring the dominionists when discussing American Christianity, eh?

"One of the most troubling scenes occurred at the introduction of the program when a Muslim police officer stated "I really am American. No ifs and or buts about it.""

Troubling, no doubt, because it is true, but does not sit well with your prior bias.

old comment by shykid

“The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.”

And most Christians are portrayed by the media as ordinary folks while excluding Christian terrorists like Anders Behring Breivik, Eric Robert Rudolph, Scott Roeder, Hutaree, the Klu Klux Klan, the Christian Identity movement, the Orange Volunteers, etc. That’s because most Christians are decent people, just like most Muslims.

Also, “traditional” doesn’t mean “good.” According to The Bible, “traditional” values include slavery, polygamy, and stoning disobedient children, among other things. Similarly, according to American history, “traditional” values include denying women the right to vote, racial segregation, slavery, killing Native Americans, etc.

“One of the most troubling scenes occurred at the introduction of the program when a Muslim police officer stated I really am American. No ifs and or buts about it.’”

How the fuck is this troubling? “o noez, someone not just like me has the gall to say they are a true American”

“The first two episodes start off with Muslim youth complaining about non-Muslim Americans’ perception of them as extremists after 911.”

...and? If you don’t like them complaining, then maybe you should treat them equally.

“Many Imams who are at the head of these prayer rituals believe strongly in Islam and Sharia law.”

Citation needed on the Sharia law. Either way, how is this any different than you people believing strongly in Christianity and wanting to turn America into a Christian theocracy?

“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.”

lol, these people are so terrified that others will see most Muslim Americans are kind and productive members of society, not the scary terrorist radicals they try to paint them out to be.

old comment by Doubting Thomas

The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values

So any time there's a program about Christianity, they should always include the Phelps clan of the WBC and Christian extremists who bomb abortion clinics and shoot abortion doctors. Just to be fair, of course.

One of the most troubling scenes occurred at the introduction of the program when a Muslim police officer stated "I really am American. No ifs and or buts about it."

Why is this troubling? Are you worried that not all Americans are Christians? Are you worried that your stereotypes of all Muslims hating America aren't true?

The first two episodes start off with Muslim youth complaining about non-Muslim Americans’ perception of them as extremists after 911.

And here you are, after 9/11, trying to portray all Muslims as extremists and claiming that showing normal Muslims is propaganda. If you still can't see the need for this kind of TV show, then you're a bigoted idiot.

Many Imams who are at the head of these prayer rituals believe strongly in Islam

Imams believing strongly in Islam??? Say it isn't so!!! Next thing you know they'll have programs with rabbis believing strongly in Judaism or Baptist ministers believing strongly in Christianity.

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. [...]

Because if you're calling for rounding up every Muslim in America and imprisoning them or kicking them out of the country, then yes, it will victimize these nice people.

old comment by SomeoneYouKnow

I know Muslims, in fact I was the best man for a wedding for one of my friends (it was a western style wedding, only instead of a priest or bishop they had a imam and it was in a mosque instead of church. Lovely ceremony, but I digress.) They aren't extremists, the only way you can tell they are Muslim is that they have a Quran instead of a Bible.

I am much more concerned about the Christian Right forcing their brand of morality down all our throats. With their abortion clinic bombing, birth control restricting, teaching teenagers that it's wrong to have premarital sex (when we should be teaching them to be responsible and use birth control), and treating women as second class citizens and much more.

old comment by Randy

What is the saying? When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

It's much the same for religious fundamentalists. When your world is divided between the "true believers" and the "other", everyone outside your "true believers" camp is automatically suspect. This holds true for many religious practioners, here and in the Middle East.

And I always like how Christians claim the mantle as champions of liberty, when the truth is that whatever progress has been made toward human liberty usually comes in spite of Christians, not because of them. True, human liberty has spread much faster in the Christian West vs. the Middle East. But that only indicates that Christianity has been adaptable to new concepts of political liberty, whereas Muslim countries not so much.

As for Lowe's dropping their sponsorship, as I understand it, they aren't the only one. But their pulling out may have more to do with ratings than any group pressure. Evidently the show is in the tank, ratings wise.

old comment by Wehpudicabok

Any Muslims who don't try to wedge their beliefs into the US government are welcome, no question.

Any Muslims who do will be treated the same as the Christians who have been doing the exact same thing pretty much since the idea that religion should stay out of government was first laid out. That is, they will be told that there must be a secular justification for laws the US government enforces, and if they don't have such a justification, they won't get anywhere.

Of course, this whole thing ignores the fact that you're just using Sharia as a way to distract from your blatant bigotry. Everyone thinks their beliefs are the best way to run the country. That's why we have our beliefs in the first place. The only difference is that you find Muslims scary, probably because you know so little about them.

(Or, perhaps more likely, you know that it's advantageous to promote fear of Muslims as it correlates with increased fucktard-Republican control of the government, so it doesn't even matter whether you personally hate Muslims or not.)

old comment by John

Isn't sharia law based on some weird-ass interpretation of the Old Testament? How is that different from orthodox Jews or wack-job Christians? I mean Muslim extremists want women to cover themselves to the eyeballs and don't drive cars. Lubavitchers want men to dress like they're in 19th century Poland and don't drive on Saturdays. Fundamentalist Baptists in Kentucky want women to wear dresses, have unprotected sex, avoid rock music, stay in the kitchen and shut up. All of them quote the Bible as the source for their rules.

Maybe the problem isn't Islam - it's the Bronze Age Jews (or maybe their Babylonian forebears) who came up with all this crap.

Florida Family #fundie floridafamily.org

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