Madeleine Fryzek

Madeleine Fryzek

April 16, 2012

Foundations of Islam

American Muslims in the Media

Most Americans do not know very much about the Islamic faith and Muslims today in the United States. The media paints all sorts of wild images about Muslims; about how Muslims are very violent and are on a constant mission to place terror into the hearts of their enemies.  In the article “Meet Some All-American Muslims, the Reality, not the Show,” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/meet-some-all-american-muslims-the-reality-not-the-show/2012/03/23/gIQAYGVKgS_blog.html) Mary Curtis, a multimedia journalist who has contributed to The Root, NPR, and Fox News Charlotte, as well as many other news sources,  writes about attending “Meet the Muslims of Charlotte” hosted by Rose Hamid, co-founder of Muslim Women of the Carolinas.  This meeting was held in response to the complaint from a conservative group about the TLC show “All-American Muslim” and this complaint led to Lowe’s Home Improvement to cancel its advertisements during the show.  Hamid’s main message during the meeting was that each Muslim is unique so Muslims should be treated individually instead of grouped as a whole.  Curtis goes on to describe individuals who participated in the panel and some of the comments that they had, such as Keith Stringfellow a “country boy from Alabama” who prayed during a Civil War reenactment and looked up to twelve people surrounding him and taking pictures.  Rather than being upset, he embraced the moment because “people just don’t know” and during moments like this “people find a lot more commonalities.”  The main focus of this panel was to help educate Americans on Islam and the uniqueness of each individual person of Muslim faith.

  This article gave a good brief overview of the panel and it also included a few key arguments made by the individuals on the panel.  Curtis was able to present this article’s main points in a neutral light, allowing for the voices of the panelists to shine through rather than giving her own opinion.  I found that this article to be a good neutrally written source presenting solely the opinions and beliefs of Muslim Americans.   It was very clear from the article the message trying to be conveyed to the audience.  I found that I wished that the article was a bit more in depth because I wanted to know more than one person’s opinion on a subject, such as terrorism or the struggle between American and Muslim identity.  As I read the article I questioned what exactly the complaint was that caused Lowe’s to pull their ads. 

According to CNN wire staff, the conservative Florida Family Association pushed advertisers to drop “All-American Muslim” because they felt that the show was “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."  I found a video from CNN that interviewed the Executive Director of Florida Family Association as well as Congressman Keith Ellison, one of two Muslim Americans in Congress.  This video shows both sides of the debate and is a perfect example of how uneducated some Americans are about Islam, and how each Muslim is an individual person who practices in his or her own way (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuldyYX0CIM).  I then looked further and found that Lisa de Moraes of the Washington Post TV column explained that All-American Muslim will not be returning for a second season because “the cast of “All-American Muslim” showed a shocking propensity to not scream at recalcitrant children, brawl in bars, consume gallons of tartar sauce, steal best friends’ boyfriends or any of the other behavioral earmarks of a hit reality docu-soap” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/tame-reality-of-all-american-muslim-leads-to-cancellation/2012/03/07/gIQAXSOoxR_story.html).  And so, I feel this proves the point that Hamid was trying to make, that Muslims are part of the community but are also individuals who are peaceful and unique.