All American Idiot

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I am told there is a TV show "All American Muslim" now being shown. Told, I say, because I do not watch TV. I ain't smart enough to watch TV, but that's another story.

The best image I've found to illustrate a point in a long time.

Anyway, as I understand it this is a show about 5 Muslim families in Michigan. (This further underscores the notion I am not smart enough to watch TV.) A Christian outfit, the Florida Family Association (FFA) has led a charge to get advertisers to quit supporting the show. Lowe's pulled its ads.

Enter recoil.

Telling comment - Dawud Walid, Michigan director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said his group felt "extreme disappointment" at Lowe's "capitulation to bigotry."

The American Family Association has also entered the fray on the side of the Florida group. The AFA is supporting Lowe's decision to pull its ads. No s'prise right?

In the latest news I saw, the ad spots for the TV show are now sold out. As in you can't get a spot when the show airs on whatever network it is airing on.

Reading books can be hazardous to your ignorance

So much for the FFA and the AFA's efforts, eh?

But all that is beside the point. The point here is much more basic.

The TV network saw a chance to make some money by producing a show about some Muslim people living in Michigan. Free speech meets free market capitalism (both of which, BTW, are proscribed under some forms of Islamic law and certain tenets of the Koran).

I point out for the record - Sharia, the formal name for Islamic law, except for that specifically mentioned in the Koran is not universally codified. Sharia varies by country. So what may be illegal under Sharia in Iran may be allowable in Turkey. And so on.

Some Christian groups objected to this TV show. They then exercised their rights to free speech by calling for a boycott.

I like this.

Some Muslim groups then objected to the Christian efforts to get advertisers to pull their spots.

I like this.

In the meantime, Eve reaches for another apple.

Where's Alice when I need her?

As to the religious diatribes and free speech,
There is no contradiction. Both groups are relying on fundamental rights of this nation - the right to free speech. Free speech, BTW, includes the right to keep your damfool mouth shut.

Free speech, BTW, does NOT include the right to force someone to say something they disagree with. Free speech, BTW, includes the right to support ideas you like. Free speech BTW, includes the right to object to ideas you do not like.

Free speech means you have two religious groups hurling epithets at each other and demanding the other be shut down.

Free speech, in case you wondered, is not fully supported by any religion in the world. Free speech means you have the right to discuss your religion openly.

Most Christians I know are not in favor of free speech. The Christ I read of in the New Testament did believe in free speech. Most Muslims I know are also not in favor of free speech.

For that matter, most people I know are not in favor of free speech.

Hrm. I wonder if I talk a TV network into doing a show - All American Idiot. For all I know, there's already such a show on TV today, just not under that name. Maybe I'll watch a TV news program tonight and confirm this.