All - American Muslim

I saw a commercial for a new reality series that is to start on November 13. The show, which is billed as a look into lives of Muslims and their experiences in the US, appears to start with the premise that Americans know little or anything about the religion or those who practice it.

On the surface, one would be likely to see this as a great idea. Several individuals and families can be interviewed and the viewing public can of course can see that in many ways they are very much like we are.
Indeed, I would agree that many Muslims truly are good-hearted people. Just as being Christian or anything else does not lock one in to being a nice person, Islam does not in and of itself force one to be bad.The difference of course is that the system is one that mandates all individual, civil, and social behavior and very often not in a good way.

The trailer featured nice people, many of whom were born in the US.  Bits that were provided seem to indicate that Americans as a whole are out to run each and very Muslim out of the country and that we generally assume that  Muslims are out to get us. One example was a nice young woman who stated that a person was giving her all sorts of grief at an airport. Her response to this typical ignorant American was to the effect of " Listen, I have to make a flight to teach people like you about us at a seminar". Of course no one can know about Islam except those who belong to that group and we have to blindly accept what you tell us about it. Others consisted of still photos of anti-Islamic vandalism (We can't forget to link those who expose Islam to criminal behavior) and shorts of Muslims who laughingly ask "Where am I supposed to go? I was born here!".

I plan to watch at least a few of the episodes. It will be interesting to see how much of what Islam actually is will be left out. I also expect that almost if not all who express concern about Islam will have not been chosen from among the most level-headed and articulate of that group of people. It's more fun to interview idiots and that tactic makes others afraid to stick their necks out because then everyone else will think that they too are ignorant rednecks. The intent of the series ultimately will be to make your local Mosque and its attendees be percieved as the same thing as the local Church and to make concerned Americans afraid of being labeled as racists.