Stereotypes Get Challenged on `All American Muslim'

As we noted last week, TLC recently premiered a multi-part documentary miniseries on the lives of All-American Muslims (airing Sunday nights at 10pm Eastern/Pacific), looking at the day-to-day lives of what is perhaps the last minority or religious group that its socially acceptable to (openly) demonize.

The series' candid cameras have zeroed in on the seemingly-unlikely haven of Dearborn, MI -- home to perhaps the largest per-capita concentration of Muslims in the US and Canada. (Many bars refuse to serve hard liquor, football jocks take time out to attend to afternoon prayers.) "Being in Dearborn allowed us to practice our religion", one participant notes, while another reminds how "hostile" the larger environment became after 9/11.

The opener, aired last Sunday, focused on an Islamic woman who was about to marry an Irish Catholic man. She wanted her boyfriend to convert to ensure her children would be born into Islamic culture and to please her old-world father, more than out of sincere religious or philosophical observance, but her soon-to-be husband had some serious queries, to be sure. Another subject was a liberated, stylish, and sexy young businesswoman who looked far more like the stereotype of a blingy reality show queen than a "burka baby"--a party and events planner who dreamed of opening up a club in Dearborn, to the raised eyebrows of her family and friends.

And this weekend's coming episode focuses on the town's Muslim football coach, as he tries to reconcile his predominately Muslim athletes' desire to observe the upcoming Ramadan holidays with their near-religious devotion to sports.

Back in 2005, I wrote about an excellent lo-fi documentary film called Back to Bosnia for the American Film Institute, which told the story of a young woman who returned to Bosnia with her family to try to reclaim their old family apartment, only to realize the sad truth of the old saw, "you can't go home again."

This young lady, born in 1977 as I recall, came of age as the Cold War was thawing out fast--she remembered MTV, Madonna, Beverly Hills 90210, blockbuster movies, and all the other favorites of "decadent" Western culture from her youth behind the fraying iron curtain. But Milosevic's war of terror finally forced her family to flee to the US, until the coast was clear. Her Muslim identity was never exactly a secret, but it wasn't the central thing in her life, and she certainly bore no resemblance to the submissive child-woman or cold-eyed fanatic of Islamic stereotypes -- something that amused and irritated her in America whenever she told people that she was indeed a Muslim. "It's like they expect me to go around in a burka or something."

In much the same way, All-American Muslim is skillfully edited and features respectful yet sometimes heated discussions among the subjects about real issues (instead of just fashion faux pas or voting off the island.) The program takes pains to show how ordinary and normal most of the profilees are (while their religious and cultural commitments vary wildly from person to person, there don't seem to be any cartoonish firebrands among them.) Indeed, you'd never know some of them were Muslim -- which is partially the point.

Much of 20th century literature was devoted to the ins and outs of assimilation, or the impossibility thereof, and the price that melting into the melting pot could extract. First there were the rich girls and poor boys, the handsome young British or New England junior shopkeeper, working "in trade" while scheming to get together with the pretty young heiress from the centuries-old "good family." Then came the Jewish princes, Irish Catholic fighters, and Italian mafiosi, bound by family and tradition to one world, even while lusting after total acceptance in a new one. And when the glass ceiling that kept African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians out of mainstream novels and serious films was finally shattered, the question of how "white" one had to force oneself to be to succeed in the larger world began to be addressed.

Adding something as subjective and volatile as religion to the mix only thickens the plot, whether in reality or even just reality TV. You have a beard-and-tassel wearing Jewish man, with two dishwashers and sets of plates and silverware to keep extra kosher, living in an Orthodox community. What does he think, within himself, of his secular cousin with the Catholic wife and "inter-faithless" kids, whose favorite food is lobster bisque and most observed charity is the ACLU?

Likewise, the John Hagee or Jerry Falwell fundamentalist, with their literal belief in eternal hellfire and judgment, waving their Bible in the face of gays and feminist women, certainly thinks that they are following in Christ's example. But so does the John Shelby Spong or "Jesus Seminar" postmodernist, even as they defiantly un-believe in such Christian basics as a resurrection, a prayer-answering God, or even a conscious afterlife. And both of them would hold the other in the utterest contempt, barely recognizing each other as fellow human beings, much less as "Christians".

So what makes a person a "Muslim" in America, in our polarized, post-9/11, Tea Party vs. Occupy, culture-warring world? Is it the religion itself, in its literal or basic interpretation, or the larger culture and tradition of the Islamic community? And how can one person commit the worst atrocities since the darkest days of the Cold War or Auschwitz in the name of Allah, while another follower of the Koran can look and act and conduct their family and lifestyle just like you and me?

These questions may never be possible to entirely answer. But All-American Muslim does deserve credit for asking the questions on a large and watchable cultural platform, with relatable-seeming people, and letting each subjects try to answer this question for themselves--in quintessentially American fashion.