All American Muslim
Newt Gingrich, much to my dismay, is in the running for the Republican nomination, and is currently pandering his way through the Iowa cornfields. One notable recent pander was his claim that the Palestinians are an invented people. What saddened me about the claim was realizing that, while it was offensive to me, it confirms the beliefs of people who believe that all Palestinians are, as Newt later put it, terrorists with no claim to nationhood. The idea that you could make such a statement with no expectation of blowback. Who could object? Well, it turns out, actual Palestinians. The Guardian reports that Palestinian leaders, from lead negotiator Saeb Erekat to Prime Minister Salam Fayyad have condemned Gingrich’s remarks. Even a former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. admitted that “Their aspiration to a national unity and self-governance is the fact we should be dealing with.”
In other Fear and Loathing of Arabs in the News, TLC, which began by airing programs that allowed the home viewer to learn something but has since devolved into midget and sextuplet reality programming, has returned to its educational roots with a new reality show, “All-American Muslim”. I haven’t yet seen the program, but my parents watch and said it is quite interesting. The show follows five Arab Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the National Arab American Museum as well as the biggest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S. My paternal great grandparents immigrated to Western Pennsylvania; somehow our people decided to leave the cool climate of the Mediterranean for more frozen landscapes. In any case, the bad news is that Lowe’s, the home supply big box store, decided to pull its advertising from the show after receiving pressure from the previously little known Florida Family Association. The good news is that Lowe’s has suffered bad publicity since pulling ads from the show. The even better news is that CNN reports that ad time on All-American Muslim is all sold out.
I take an optimist’s view of the two recent news items. A pessimistic view is that there is a sizable portion of Americans that only sees Arabs as crazed, wild-eyed savages, who don’t like having that view challenged. Yet what I see in both of these cases is that the tide is turning. A small “family” organization objected to the reality show on TLC, but their petition may have drawn more viewers to the show than ever, and more importantly, the negative reaction to Lowe’s decision to pull from the show may cause other advertisers to think twice before heeding the petitions of small-minded organizations with an agenda that favors hate more than family. And with regards to Newt Gingrich’s comments, yes, they do resonate with people who don’t know much about history in the region. But how will Newt and his incendiary, to-hell-with-diplomacy style fare in the Republican primaries, or perhaps the general election? My gut says Newt and his shit-eating grin will be fading away soon.
The Lebanexican 
That’s low, Lowe’s.