Reality TV: 'All-American Muslim'

If you missed this past Sunday's "All-American Muslim", then I suggest you write a note to remember this Sunday. TLC's new reality show featuring American Muslims is anything but traditional, it is  conventional and modern and we all get to see what life is like for an American Muslim.

The eight-part series is the first show on American television that depicts the lives of Muslim Americans, a community that has been in the spotlight for the past decade, but often misunderstood.

Filmed this year, the series looks at five Lebanese-American Shia Muslim families in Dearborn, the city that has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S. Women are a big part of the show, which reflects the community's diversity: The female characters range from a conservative who frowns on bellydancers at Arab weddings, to a woman with an Islamic head scarf who's outspoken and who dances, to a married businesswoman who wears short skirts and tight tops when hitting the city with friends.

Before 9/11 most Americans didn't think about Muslim or Islam for two minutes. Post 9/11, its what most of them think about, not knowing what Islam is or what American Muslims may feel or not feel. Non-Muslims may not understand why the head scarf  worn or why they pray five times a day, and that is fine, however to sterotype Muslims in American and or around the world is not right. Muslims in America live a 21st century sort of life, most of them being born here in the US, never visiting where their parents or grandparents once lived in the Middle East or North Africa. So, to think they are all cut from the same cloth as the late Osama bin Laden, would be down right Stupid. 

            

All-American Muslim is extremely important television. It shows non-Muslim Americans who may be on the fence regarding their fellow citizens who happen to be Muslim — because Fox News, right wing radio, and every Republican running for President keeps telling them to hate their living guts — that these people are just as boring as them. And I mean boring in a good, suburban way.

The five families the show follows are as Muslim as halal food and are also as American as Coca-Cola:

-The Amen Family: led by traditional patriarch Mohsen and wife Lila, they prepare for the wedding of their “rebel” daughter Shadia (who is unveiled, has tattoos, and a 10-year-old son from a previous marriage) to Jeff, an Irish-American who was raised Roman Catholic but is converting to Shia Islam.

-The Aoude Family: newlyweds Nader and Nawal prepare for the arrival of their first child. They live a traditional lifestyle, with Nawal wearing the veil, but they are still a young, modern couple.

-The Bazzy-Aliahmad Family: Nina is the central focus of this family, which also consists of husband Ali and son Andre. She is modern-day woman who runs her own party planning business but is now eager to open the first nightclub in Dearborn. She is also a very flashy dresser (big earrings, leopard prints, short skirts) which shock some in her community but it doesn’t feel out of place in reality show.

-The Jaafar Family: another average, modern family, wife Angela works as an automotive marketing consultant while husband Mike works as a deputy chief sheriff, all while raising four kids.

-The Zaban Family: Husband/father Fouad is the hot-headed head coach of the Fordson High School football team. Even though he’s a very religious man, football comes first, which means that his majority-Muslim players have to suit up while fasting during Ramadan.