The Hullabaloo About Muslims and Hardware Stores

When the Florida Family Association called on advertisers to boycott a new TLC show about American Muslim families, they probably didn’t expect to start a big controversy that would end up with more people learning about the show than ever would have otherwise. But Lowe’s pulled its ads from All-American Muslim, and now everybody’s upset that they caved to a social conservative group. Apparently thousands of people want Lowe’s to reinstate the ads (no doubt many of them liberals who otherwise act disgusted by advertising). Personally I think it’s a big hullabaloo about almost nothing.

First, to the conservatives Republicans: You need to get over your obsession with “real Muslims vs. fake Muslims.” You know that some people think Islam is a peaceful religion and some people think it has to do with killing all the infidels. You’ve learned about al-Qeada and the history of Mohammed and seen some verses from the Koran and you’ve been convinced that the “real Muslims” are the killers and the ones that think it’s a peaceful religion are just fooling themselves. The Florida Family Association president, David Caton, declares that “a follower of Islam believes in the radicalization, use of Sharia Law, which provides for honor killings, mutilation of women, and numerous other atrocities to women.” So whenever part of our culture engages in an attempt to present “peaceful Muslims” in a good light, you get riled up because you think they’re trying to deceptively encourage sympathy and support for dangerous murderers.

Well, here’s the big problem with that. You also believe that Islam is a false religion anyway. And how can there be a “real” version of a false religion? If some Muslims convince themselves that all infidels must be killed, then they’re following a false religion that promotes killing. Let’s call it “killing-Muslim.” If other Muslims convince themselves that everyone can live in peace and harmony, then they’re following a false religion that promotes peace and harmony. Let’s call it “peace-Muslim.” They just happen to use the same name for themselves and pick verses out of the same book.

Now I understand that it’s not all unicorns and ponies. The difference between a peaceful dude who calls himself a “hippie” and a peaceful dude who calls himself a “Muslim” is that the follower of “peace-Muslim” seems to have a much greater potential of turning into a follower of “killing-Muslim,” given the right (or rather, wrong) circumstances and influences, especially considering that they already like the book and founder that both false religions happen to share. But as Jonah Goldberg says, if we’re concerned about Muslim sympathies for extremism, “shouldn’t we be relatively happy that there’s a show pointing to a better model for Muslims than extremism”? Shouldn’t we encourage those more peaceful circumstances and influences?

Second, to the liberal progressives: Lowe’s has the right to display ads or not display ads on any television show that it so chooses. So what if you think they’re making a bad decision and caving to bigots? Then don’t shop there. Are you going to get mad at every single other business in the country that never placed ads on the show in the first place?

Besides, you have to at least try to appreciate the conservative fears that give rise to all the silly things like ad boycotts and warnings of Sharia Law behind every headscarf. We’ve seen enough people convert from “peace-Muslim” to “killing-Muslim” that concern – though not hysteria – is certainly warranted. Remember last week’s tragic Hollywood shooting? The news says the motive is entirely unknown, but a witness claims the gunman yelled “Allahu Akbar.” The media fails to address the claim in any way, and suddenly you’ve got conservatives convinced that this is just the latest evidence – remember the Fort Hood shooting? – that the media is trying to hide the obvious fact that Islam is very dangerous.

So when conservatives learn about a show that tries to portray followers of Islam as normal, peaceful people, it’s perfectly reasonable that some will interpret this as an even more blatant propaganda. They may not know any “peace-Muslims” and they may not know, like you undoubtedly do, that the vast majority of American Muslims are bona fide “peace-Muslims” that do not secretly dream of killing their Christian neighbors at night. But you have to admit that America has seen an unfortunate share of “killing-Muslims” in recent years, and that it’s very hard to tell the difference between “peaceful-Muslims,” “killing-Muslims pretending to look like peaceful-Muslims,” and “peaceful-Muslims who will turn into killing-Muslims.”

So, in summary, liberals should stop pretending that it’s entirely ridiculous for conservatives to be concerned that some Muslims might be the type want to kill them, and conservatives should stop being concerned that most Muslims are definitely the type that want to kill them and that the media doesn’t want everyone to know that. (The materialistic American Dream has an unfortunate knack for numbing the religious fervor of Christianity, but, hey, maybe it will do the same thing for Islam too.) Where some see “show that encourages Muslims to be peace-Muslims,” others see “show that tries to deny the existence of killing-Muslims.” Could it even be possible that the show does both? I don’t know; I haven’t seen it. If All-American Muslim helps to promote peace-Muslims over killing-Muslims, then so be it, and let’s not let up our guard on opposing the threat of killing-Muslims, either.

But as for where hardware stores choose to advertise…. I could care less.