Exercising its prerogative as a business, Lowe's has pulled its sponsorship of the television show All-American Muslim.
The usual suspects are all riled up over Lowe's decision.
And get this!
A state senator from Southern California said Sunday he was considering calling for a boycott. Calling the Lowe's decision "un-American" and "naked religious bigotry," Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, told The Associated Press he would also consider legislative action if Lowe's doesn't apologize to Muslims and reinstate its ads.Legislative action to force a business to sponsor a TV show? Why? Because Muslims (and Islam) must always have the upper hand, even to the point of violating capitalistic principles.
Of course, CAIR is involved:
Dawud Walid, Michigan director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said his group felt "extreme disappointment" at Lowe's "capitulation to bigotry.""Others"? As in legislative bodies and courts?
Walid said he has heard expressions of anger and calls for a boycott by Muslims but said a key to resolving the Lowe's advertising controversy will be how non-Muslim religious leaders and others react to Lowe's decision....
Lowe's had better not back down on this!
Fellow infidels, if Lowe's stands their ground, buy at Lowe's this Christmas.
Can people be so stupid as to call a free, lawful decision in a free marketplace bigoted?
ReplyDeleteSo, by this logic, every business that does not advertise on a Sunday morning Christian program or a Christian radio program is an anti-Christian bigot.
Actually, by their twisted illogic, every business that doesn't advertise on that Muslim show is an anti-Muslim bigot.
This is where we are at folks. Millions of people too stupid to apply simple Aristotelian logic, and stupid demagogues still yet smart enough to exploit this stupidity for community agitation purposes.
It was coerced, Silverfiddle. Evangelical bigots couldn't stand the idea that Muslims families are just like everyone else and deal with the same problem.
ReplyDeleteFact is that the evangelical right is loaded with bigots.
What galls me is that the evangelical right doesn't have the balls to just come out and admit their hatreds.
I was going to comment but Duckey is too disgusting for me. I will let others tolerate his nonsense. Why, I am not sure.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sound business decision, a little late but sound. Who would watch that crap anyway?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting the differing sides to this story and who pushes which point.
ReplyDeleteThough I think it was Lowe's public relation mistake, their policy is probably just what they said - not getting involved in politics.
Having said that, only Ducky has pointed out that the stink was made by an Evangalist group that said " the group aims to "defend traditional American biblical values."
Taking that to be the reason is actually bigoted.
"TAMPA, Fla.— The conservative group that got Lowe's to pull its ads from a reality TV show about American Muslims has been fighting for more than two decades against gay rights, strip clubs and most anything else that offends evangelical Christians. "
So let us look at what we have here.
On one hand we have "the astute blogger" arguing against Muslims for being upset that a sponser pulled away because a fringe evangalical sect considered it "not promoting Christianity" and on the other hand, we must accept that religious intolerance has power and there is nothing we can do about it.
What a bunch of hypocrits, all around. This is what is wrong with America - double standards, nothing more and nothing less. Everyone wishes to get a benefit at the price of "whatever it takes".
I am sick of being toid I need to be "enlightened", tolerant. Just how far does it go elsewhere around the world? Just how far do Christians have freedom of religion without getting slaughtered?
ReplyDeleteBunkerville, I am neither sure of what the relevance to this topic or the value of that comment is. Sure, you have the right to your opinion and it is certainly respected.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, do we give up being tolerant, moral or simply freedom loving because others around the world are not?
The topic here is, to be frank, the accussation that somehow the lobbying of a fringe fanatic Christian group should be ignored but by others it is intolerance, unjust pressure or somehow implementation of outside ideologies.
Stogie,
ReplyDeleteyou may wish that genuine faithful Muslims are just that, but I am pretty sure your not that stupid to actually believe it. Or are you?
If, for some unbelievable reason, you actually believe that tripe then I suggest you stop dreaming or looking at trash sources for information.
Let us look at the trash-list you have provided. "honor killings, veils and beatings for women, hatred of Jews, jihad (murder of infidels) "
Honor killings are cultural and are not religion specific. Most certainly Arab and Turk cultural practices lend to honor killings but they also occur in Central South America, all parts of the Balkans, Russia and the Ukrain and most honor killings actually occur in rural Hindu India.
Viels (and full coverings like the Burqa) are very much cultural though wahhabists and salafis would argue that (but they are extremists, right?). The viel is not discussed in any of the Muslim's holy texts and a good example is the fact that Al Azhar the number one Islamic university and hotbed of conservatism actually bans it. Have you noticed, by the way, that even the most ultra-conservative Iranians do not cover their faces? I wonder why....
Beating women - now that is even to stupid to discuss but how about the fact that Hindu Nepal has the highest rate of domestic-violence on the planet followed by South Africa (also the rape capital of the plant) but because stats are not kept, Papua New Guinea probably is the leader (non are Muslim).
Jew Hatred can be looked in two lights, none of which you would have considered. The first is that the Jews have been targetted with hatred for millenia with, as we know, the Holocaust being the spike. Historically Jews had it "better off" in Muslim countries until the turn of the 20th century and then of course there was Nazism. Modern hatred has occured not because of "being Jewish" but because of Israel - thus it can be argued that it is political with "as much as" real anti-Semitism as anywhere else. It is not because they are Muslim - nobody would be dumb enough to say that unless they have a motive to do so.
Jihad, in the sense that you put it, is in fact "unsanctioned" claims to the "lesser Jihad" which is in fact supposed to be to "defend Islam". In reality not one of the five schools of jurispudence nor any Muslim government has declared such a "jihad". It has been done by terror groups and radicals, of which most are also against the laws of thier respective countries. Greater Jihad, which is the one encouraged, is for Muslims to better themselves and is a personal jihad.
I am giving this point-by-point message because such rediculous, bigoted and in fact pathetic comment should not exist except as an example of how disgusting people do get. Since I do not know you, I assume your just plain ignorant, if not then you fit the above description.
My argument on blogs like this have been consistantly the same - make comments, criticisms and condemnations as much as you like - BUT, if you base it on mindless or bigoted cr*p then you only make yourselfs look stupid and any valid argument becomes voided by association.
Cheers
I do plan on making a purchase from Lowes in the near future. I don't know what yet, but they will get something.
ReplyDeleteI thought the legislative action threat was scary. Not because it's a credible threat but because his mind automatically went there. This is why this next election is so important. If we do not at least keep the House we may not recognize this country in 4 more years.
ReplyDeleteNOTE TO READERS:
ReplyDeleteI will return to this thread. At the moment, my time is being gobbled up by the following:
1. Still doing some Christmas shopping. Mr. AOW and I were at the mall most of yesterday. We weren't planning on being there that long, but the wheelchair taxi stranded us! I'm so tired that I overslept by four hours this morning. Sheesh.
2. I have to put all my passwords back into my laptop, which I got back from my guru last night. He managed to save the machine -- barely.
3. I've discovered an addicting iPad game -- "Angry Birds" (original and Rio versions).
-----------------
A WONDERFUL SURPRISE HERE THIS MORNING!! For the first time since his stroke of 2009, Mr. AOW walked from the living room, where his hospital is, to the master bedroom, where I was oversleeping. I was sleeping so soundly that Mr. AOW couldn't awaken me by calling out to me and was concerned that yesterday's shopping trip had literally killed me.
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I'll be back to this thread later today.
Stogie,
ReplyDeletesuperficial examples like Beslan 9/11 are just that, examples of events done in the name of a faith for political or radical reasons, nothing more or less.
Your entire approach, to be frank, is superficial and smells of "I want to sound tough" whilst attempting to grasp at something you have no comprehension of and thus have to go the easy route.
I noticed, of course, you have not bothered to respond to the errors that I have pointed out but thrown in more. I will not bother to repeat them, they are there to remind you of the big holes in your arguments. Filling it in with the examples of the horrors of militant Islamists (though disgusting and repugnant as they are) remains only superficial.
A Jewish-Spanish proverb would be perfect for your examples -
"stop counting the sand and start looking for a bucket."
You may wish to consider some very simple facts that I am sure the sites you hang around carefully avoid.
How many Muslim nations supported events like 9/11 and Beslan? None.
How many Muslim nations support the goals of becoming a single large Caliphate? None.
How many countries officially support Al Qaeda? None.
What percentage of Muslim countries are an active participant in fighting militant Islamist terrorism? 51 out of 56.
Of the five Islamic schools of Jurispudence (the ones that can declare a global jihad and right the theological rule books etc), how many support terror and Islamists? None, in fact all five condemned it even through fatwas.
Stoges, another simple point. I am not a liberal. I am a centre-right active member and financial supporter of the British Conservative Party. Trying to hide your own bigotry by classic ad hominims fall flat.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant news AOW! That effort, though as difficult as it may be for him, is exactly what he needs. Stroke victims, according to what I understand, need most of all to return to the natural motions and physical movements they had before.
ReplyDeleteMy prayers are with you both.
I don't shop in this kinds of establishments, but per DH, Lowe's beats Home Depot in selection and customer service.
ReplyDeleteOh, DC, and as for your statistics, where did you get them? Did you make them up? I feel so reassured now. Because the next times Muslims bomb a train in India or machine gun strangers at an airport, all they need to do is hold up your so-called statistics.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read a SINGLE book on Islam? If so, name it.
@Ducky "What galls me is that the evangelical right doesn't have the balls to just come out and admit their hatreds."
ReplyDeleteYeah! All those burnings and bombings of "the infidels'" houses of worship, the charges of blasphemy, chasing out people who don't think like they do...
That's hatred, and it ain't coming from evangelical Christians in America, so get your facts straight Ducky.
Sir Charles QC, OFM:
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to hear the stuffy lectures from the sagging continent. This has nothing to do with "hypocrisy" or "double-standards," and everything to do with free speech. Lowe's exercised it, just like the tv producers did, and the usual professional victim industry cranked up it's predictable howls of indignation.
We have freedom here. Get over it.
And while your at it, point your bigoted fellow Euros our way to see how a free society assimilates immigrants. You narrow-minded, chauvinistic Euro-prigs are utter failures at it, so save your lectures.
And just where is "Central South America?" Your comment on honor killings in Latin America is ignorant. I've lived there and I know a lot about the place.
I'm sure someone could dig up an instance of two of a father killing a daughter (I'm sure we could also find instances of Brits killing the prostitute that just serviced them), but to equate it to the muslim practice is disingenuous at best.
Also disingenuous is how the UN Grand High Rapporteur Poobah groups in husbands killing their wives over suspected infidelities. While abhorrent and certainly murder, it is not an honor killing.
QC Charles: Your entire approach, to be frank, is superficial and smells of "I want to engage in abhorrent behavior apologetics for the pure lawyerly fun of it."
ReplyDeleteStogie, you can pretend from your desktop to know something about Muslims and Islam but frankly it is not convincing anyone except perhaps yourself.
ReplyDeleteYes there is a refernce to beating your wives in the Koran but it also is in the Old Testiment - does that make a difference coming from the hate-feast in your blog that proclaims Israel can do no wrong?
As for honor killings - go to any official honor-killing website and read the stats yourself. It is cultural not religious plain and simple and to deny it is a slap-in-the-face of all the thousands of victims whom happen to be not Muslim but most be fine according to your arguments. The same goes with FGM which to you must obviously not exist in the non-Muslim world - try again. That disgusting practice occurs regularly from Zimbabwe up the East Coast of Africa in Animist and suposively Christian Africa equally. Because Jihad-Watch and other hate-sites like to publish otherwise only reflects on your abilities to chose a real source.
Your self-deluding naivity about what consitutes "the most violent" in the recent past (and equating it to some form of totality) again shows that you sit at your desktop wanting and wishing what was true - rather than actually bothering.
So somehow the two-world wars, the holocaust, the Russian and Chinese Purges, Korea, Vietnam, Rawanda, Bosnia and Sri-Lanka are all acts of Islam. That somehow the two million Cambodians were victims of jihad? I think you Americans have the best expression in this case - Stogie - "your a complete dick."
It is mindless and baseless ranting, pointless finger pointing and mob-like condemnation that frankly strung up the "negroes", based "gooks" and now simply picks on anybody "arab looking" so that they give the "towel-head" a bashing.
I suggest before you actually read something other than a hate-blog as a reference that you first look at a dictionary at the word context.
ps, just to be civil - I have smoked Padrón and Partagás cigars since 1970, Partagás is hard to come by here and there is a Dominican version which is not bad. What about yourself?
Addendum: And parents of my students as well.
ReplyDeleteWow!
ReplyDelete"Hamas-tied Group CAIR Threatens Lowes"
AOW, point taken with the language. I get pretty tired of complete jerks repeating garbage as if it has substance.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Pamela Gellar rant, anything from her is tainted with the poisons of bigotry and narcism.
I will continue to shop and support Lowe's.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have gathered the reason they pulled their ad was because the show was plummeting in the ratings and they didn't want to put their money into a dying product.
CAIR and the Muslims are the one's who are blowing this way out of proportion.
No one has the right to tell any company to put money into a failing product just to appease a whiny group of people who can't seem to be happy with anything.
Once again Jon Stewart skewers the loony right and their hate filled hypocrisy (and it's funny too!):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jon-stewart-lowes-american-muslim-273664
I think I will have to frequent Lowes more often.
ReplyDeleteProgressive politicians need to get the heck out of businesses business.
D Charles,
ReplyDeleteYou are free not to like Pamela, but that link does have embedded links of merit.
Leticia said:
ReplyDeleteNo one has the right to tell any company to put money into a failing product...
You said that so well!
The government has no business interfering in a business's decisions with regard advertising. And I'm sure that Lieu wouldn't lift a finger to force a sponsor for CBN or any other similar network.
In fact, as I think about this Lowe's issue, it comes to my mind that our government would never consider forcing a mosque or a halal market to sponsor CBN or Honey Baked Ham.
Businesses should have the freedom to sponsor any licensed business when they want to do so and which business they want to support.
And here's another thing....
ReplyDeleteIs the government going to start telling us which shows we can and cannot watch on television?
Teresa,
ReplyDeleteProgressive politicians need to get the heck out of businesses business.
The government isn't going to do that unless WE THE PEOPLE force the government to back off.
Kayak.com have now also dropped the add. They say the complaints against the show made them think a bit more about what TLC said the show was about and what actually it produced.
ReplyDelete....
Birge admitted that the "decision comes across as bending to bigotry," and "it also appears that we did not support people who deserve support as people and as Americans."
The boss of Kayak wrote the following in an apology on facebook. I think it says much.
"For that," he wrote, "I am profoundly sorry."
Birge added: "Mostly, I just thought the show sucked. Based on our dealings with TLC and the simple assessment of the show, I decided we should put our money elsewhere. Apologies again."
Note in contrast to comments here that it was for particular reasons.
For my part I do agree that companies have the right to sponsor and pull-out in any way they like. What I do not like is the double-standards that exist here and if the opposite was the case - ie companies pulling out because of unacceptable potrayals by an anti-Islam Christian group due to protests by Muslims - I am sure there would be miles of condemnations here. Right?
In the end, this still was caused by a fringe-Evangelical pressure group known for such pressure in the past. That should be not forgotten and noted.
Duly noted, Prince Charles.
ReplyDeleteNow physician, go heal thyself.
Maybe someday Europe can successfully assimilate immigrants the way we vulgar cowboys here in the US have done.
The beauty of America is this...
ReplyDeleteFolks its called freedom.
The group in Florida is free to complain. The folks who made the show are free to do so. Lowes is free to advertise on the show or not. And we are free to shop at Lowes or not.
Personally, I can not support a form of governance that treats women and non-believers as second class citizens.
Blogginator,
ReplyDeleteThe group in Florida is free to complain. The folks who made the show are free to do so. Lowes is free to advertise on the show or not. And we are free to shop at Lowes or not.
Exactly.
I collected some pretty ridiculous question and answers from Islam-QA, a sunni fundie site. No exaggerations......real answers from the Islamic Scholars. http://doodiepants.com/2010/06/22/questions-and-answers-from-islam-qa-com-part-1/
ReplyDeleteSearch for part 2 on the site if you're interested in more ridiculousness.
Doodiepants,
ReplyDeleteI'll take a look.