"All American Muslim"

Why is that people have such a hard time accepting others who hold different religious beliefs than their own?  Recently there has been a new barrage of racism and bigotry against TLC and their new show "All American Muslim".  To be perfectly honest, I have not watched the show yet, not because I don't want to, but because I haven't had the time on Sunday nights to devote to watching it.  From what I have gathered about the show, it basically follows the lives of five Muslim families living in Michigan.  Pretty simple, right?  Well, if you listened to the Florida Family Association or other fringe racist groups, you would get a different picture altogether.  If you listened to them, you would think that this show is an attempt to numb Americans to the real purpose behind Muslims living in America; to usurp power from our government and overthrow our constitution.  The FFA in particular claims that Muslims are out to get us, that this show is a mis-representation of their intentions, and that every American should be looking over their shoulder for the next terrorist.  Give me a break.  The FFA only wants more attention for itself so it attacks whatever is popular to attack at a given moment feeling that it can draw support for their cause.  The FFA, supposedly a group comprised of mostly evangelical Christians is nothing more than a group full of racists and bigots.  I would almost associate them with the KKK except that they don't support violence.  Other than that, they are essentially the same. 

The FFA claims that Muslims are on a crusade to overtake America and to diminish the rights of Christians living in this country.  Last time I checked, however, one of the main reasons people from Europe came to America in the first place was for freedom to practice whatever religion they wanted.  Now this group, claiming to be "Christian" is crusading against Muslims?  They have no right to even call themselves Christians in my mind.  For people to be so obtuse and self centered is to go against what Christianity promotes, namely, accepting people for who they are and not judging based upon pre-conceived notions.  So enough about this so-called Christian group.  Why do they have such a problem with this show on TLC?  They feel that it is propaganda because it doesn't represent every facet of Muslim beliefs or mention enough about their beliefs.  They feel more should be mentioned about jihad and shariah.  From what I know about the show, (which is very little), it seems like the show simply follows five families through their daily lives.  What if jihad or shariah doesn't come up in their daily conversations or presents itself in their lives?  Does that mean it should be brought up to "accurately" portray their religion?  To me, if the show is about their lives and their lives do not focus on jihad or shariah in any way, than it should not be brought up.  The show is not about the Muslim faith, it is about Muslim's living in America.   Simple as that. 

I am amazed that there is still so much racism, bigotry, and hatred present in this country.  Although I guess I shouldn't be.  Racism, for diminishing to the extent that it has, will probably never go away.  There will always be a group of people or a religious sect that adheres to racism and bigotry.  Why?  Because that group feels threatened in some way by others.  They feel that their way of life is going away and they desperately need to hold on to it and fight for it with whatever means possible.  If that means resorting to racism and hatred of others, than so be it.  I feel sorry that these groups of people feel the way that they do.  What happened in their lives that made them turn to racism and hatred?  Maybe if they focused on their religion and their own spiritual lives they wouldn't need to act the way they are now.  Racism will never completely go away I fear, however we can all do our best to help reduce its impact.  What we need to do is become more accepting of others, regardless of their religious beliefs, their sexual orientation, or their ethnicity.  All that should matter is that we are all humans trying to live the best life we can.  Just because we adhere to certain beliefs doesn't make us any less human than the person next to us.  If we can get over ourselves and our self-righteousness, than perhaps we can progress our society to be even more accepting and open than it already is.  I would love to see a day and age where it doesn't matter what religion you are, what skin color you have, or anything else for that matter.  We are not there yet, but I hope we will be.  We need to start by educating others on what it means to be human.  Some, like those in the FFA, appear to be more along the lines of neanderthals than humans.  Lets all do our best to promote freedom of religion, especially in this day and age of globalization.