TLC cancels controversial docuseries All-American Muslim

After a brief and controversial run, TLC's All-American Muslim has been canceled. The show revolved around five Muslim families living in Dearborn, Michigan, and offered a relatively nuanced portrayal of the daily life of those devoted to the Islamic faith. The controversy began in December when Lowe's decided to remove all of their ads from the show, stating:

"While we continue to advertise on various cable networks, including TLC, there are certain programs that do not meet Lowe's advertising guidelines... Lowe's will no longer be advertising on [All-American Muslim]."

Lowe's didn't explain exactly what about All-American Muslim didn't mesh with their image, but the pull was prompted by an e-mail from conservative dick-hats The Florida Family Association, which read:

"Clearly this program is attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to influence them to believe that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show."

Basically, they were saying that watching a Muslim family cook dinner and walk their dog would dissuade Americans from preparing for an inevitable sequel to September 11. Just like how watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 tricks Americans into getting into shitty relationships. All this controversy and press apparently did not help the show; the premiere of All-American Muslim attracted a little over a million and a half viewers, but the ratings fell to only 900,000 for the season finale.

I guess we'll never know what happens to these nice Michiganians. Maybe they're watching television at this very moment; maybe they're plotting a jihad. Who knows?