Reactions to How low(e) can you go?

4 comments: Hard Core Spirituality said... To me it sounds like yet another round of "how dare you interrupt my hateful stereotypes with facts!" I'm not a Muslim, but I grew up in one of the areas of the country with a substantial number of Muslims. Muslims, therefore, seemed no stranger to this Catholic kid than, say, Lutherans, or Orthodox, or any of the many other groups you find in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. And, as is inevitable when people intermingle as people, not as stereotypes, one of my siblings married a Palestinian. Never in my wildest imagination could I picture Muslims as anything but the kind of people who came to family gatherings and who might live next door... And then came 9/11, and I think this country has gone insane. Muslims have become more (and much less) than they really are: they have become the locus of American rage against perceived national decline (never mind that scapegoating only hastens real decline). "All American Muslim" ruins this. How can you successfully hate The Other when The Other you're hating is one of us? That FFA would complain about the lack of terrorists (never mind that, in the Muslim community, there *is* a paucity of terrorists) isn't surprising: Muslim as The Other has a special place in their back-to-the-Middle-Ages Evangelical heart. That Lowes would go along with such an outrageous campaign is a lot more shocking to me. Oh well: time to give my business back to the local lumberyard, where it should have stayed in the first place. December 14, 2011 at 7:49 PM Unknown said... Well-written piece. I literally cannot believe the amount of bigoted hate being spewed forth on Lowe's Facebook page. I knew Islamophobia was a problem here; I never realized it was so widespread. It's almost amusing (and more than a little sickening) to watch as the haters gleefully yell out their support for Lowe's and their right to spend their ad dollars as they wish. Talk to them long enough, though, and it becomes clear that they are really delighted about one thing-- finally having an excuse to publicly bash Muslims. December 14, 2011 at 9:52 PM Sandra (Etsy) said... GRRRRRR !!!!! I heard the commentary last night and I want to scream.. How is it 2011 and this guy is able to go on television and spew his words of hate and ignorance. It's a sad day. December 15, 2011 at 11:52 AM Sulayman said... What an excellent piece. It's amazing how threatened people feel by this show. Wonderful that you pointed out the hypocrisy of asking where the moderates are then silencing them. December 18, 2011 at 12:59 AM