Lowe's is wrong. Russell Simmons is right. US needs TLC show 'All-American Muslim.'

A young high school football coach training with his team; a small-town cop and his high school sweetheart raising their four kids; a rookie entrepreneur scoping out a business venture. By the usual sensational standards, these characters would not make for compelling reality television. But what about when they are American Muslims living in Dearborn, Mich.? Then we have the stars of TLC’s newest reality show “All-American Muslim,” a series that has ignited plenty of drama since its premiere last month.

The most recent controversy: Under pressure from a conservative group in Florida, the retailer Lowe’s and other companies pulled their advertising from the show. Cue public outcry: Nearly 30,000 people object to Lowe’s decision by signing a nationally circulated petition; hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons offers to purchase the remaining ad slots for next week’s episode; and politicians at the state and national levels issue shaming statements aimed at Lowe's.

Meanwhile, within the American Muslim community, debate largely centers on the authenticity of representation, relevance of story lines, and whether the show does more harm than good in rehabilitating a vilified image of Muslims in an increasingly intolerant national context. But while there are definite conceptual shortcomings, “All-American Muslim” opens the door to national dialogue that is meaningful, and especially in light of recent events, absolutely necessary.

Let’s be real: American Muslims need all the damage-control PR they can get right now.

Park51 (the so-called “ground zero mosque”) brought out the worst of popular fears against Islam and a dehumanizing paranoia that played out on national television. Now a conservative Christian group, Florida Family Association, puts the same accusations back into circulation by petitioning companies to pull their ads airing during "All-American Muslim," including Lowe’s. The group claims the show “manipulate[s] Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad” and masks “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."

The distrust and suspicion spread by FFA and similar groups further proves that before the show can even begin to address the actual diversity of American Muslim communities, it will have to start with the basics: The vast majority of Muslims are not angry wife-beating terrorists determined to infiltrate the United States and implement sharia law. Instead, the vast majority are friendly, normal, family-oriented folks. This is where “All-American Muslim” can effectively play mediator.

Considering that 62 percent of Americans do not personally know a Muslim, the show adopts a simple humanizing objective. It uses the backdrop of Dearborn, with its largely Muslim, Lebanese-American population, as a representation of the “All-American Muslim.”

The football coach is a Lebanese-American, Fouad Zaban, and the student population is predominantly Arab. The cop is Mike Jaafar, deputy chief at the sheriff’s office, with 17 years of experience in law enforcement. The entrepreneur is Nina Bazzy-Aliahmad, a married woman, scouting locations for a nightclub. Suddenly, Muslims are just like other Americans. They coach football, marry their high school sweethearts, and own nightclubs.

The cast has familiar, easy-to-pronounce names like “Mike” and “Angela;” they wear jeans and hoodies; they speak with a Midwestern twang. Still, some within the American Muslim community have called for a boycott of the show to express their disdain for again being “misrepresented by the media.” These critics note that characters living in a community that is largely Arab, Muslim, and Shiite and that it does not represent the typical American Muslim experience.

Sound familiar? When “Jersey Shore” premiered in 2009, Italian-American groups based in New Jersey were outraged by the (mis)representation of Italian-Americans and asked for its cancellation; the show is now gearing up for its fifth season. “All-American Muslim” producers, like most producers, are interested in attracting a large viewership. Period. Muslims generally are not the intended audience of the show, nor should they delude themselves into thinking there exists an obligation to represent the community in its entirety.

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