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[tuxedo_cat]

I am teaching a course on multicultural literature and the visual arts (including popular culture), and I am considering showing an episode or clips from the TLC reality show, "All-American Muslim."  It would be great to know if any of you are watching this program and what your responses are.  Like the other materials we're studying for the course, we will of course analyze the program as a representation, and not as a simple reflection of "reality."

My interest in this possibility was motivated partly by this excellent NPR discussion of the show and the controversial decision by Lowe's in Dec. to pull their ads for the program in response to a protest by a small evangelical organization in Florida:

WBUR, Tom Ashbrook: "All-American Muslim" Under Fire."

The option of using it in class this semester may be moot, since there seem to be only very short clips available online and I have no way of taping any episodes -- but any advice there would be welcome, too!

[yemaya]

I'm watching and enjoy the show.  There are a range of participants in the show - from the more orthodox hajib-wearing women to a progressive one who identifies strongly with her faith, but wears tight clothing and aspires to run a nightclub (problematic in the community both because of gender and the alcohol issue).  There are also discussions about struggles to adhere to faith and culture in a 20th-century US city.  For students who had little-to-no exposure to Muslims before this, it might help to cut through stereotypes.  Those from immigrant families or more orthodox religious communities might be able to relate to this.  (The movies Arranged or The Namesake are also excellent for this, though The Namesake largely deals with cultural stresses between generations and Arranged has both the cultural/generational stretches and religion.)  It also talks about the problems of bigotry (subtle and otherwise) that Muslims face in the US.

I think the one real fault I have with the show so far is that all of the Muslims on the show are Arab.  To a degree, that could enforce stereotypes, so anyone teaching it would have to work to remind students that Islam is a global religion.

And it sounds like Lowe's needs to be reminded that in kow-towing to hate groups, they alienate a great population.

[tuxedo_cat]

Thanks, yemaya!  I appreciate your reflections very much.  I may just have to camp out on Sunday evenings with a pal who has cable and . . . a tv attached to a VCR?  Yeah, hahaha.  Actually, is my campus allowed to record episodes for me?  That would be cool.   

The NPR discussion made the TLC show sound surprisingly good for a reality show, although one of Ashbrook's commentators (prof. at Yale) pointed out how de-politicized the program is in some important ways (no mention of the wars in Iraq, apparently).  But it sounds like the producers wanted to tread lightly at the beginning -- and the response by Lowe's indicates they were right -- and are willing to continue opening up the representations to demonstrate further diversity within the community as the season progresses.

Most of my students are from very culturally homogenous regions of the country, although in the past 10 years or so we have had several, expanding refugee settlements of communities with a significant Muslim population, at least in the city where I live.  I expect that even 20 minutes of the show would reveal quite a lot to these students.
 

[yemaya]

It is surprisingly good for a reality show, though the plethora of shows like the Real Housewives franchises, Jersey Shore and Real World don't exactly set the bar all that high.  And I agree with the comments that it's very depoliticized, aside from references to Muslim American life after 9/11. If your course isn't strictly a US multiculturalism type class and you wanted to talk about non-Arab Muslims, you could consider Brick Lane (either movie or the book), about a young Bangladeshi Muslim woman who marries and moves to London. (The book/movie does deal with fundamentalist elements of Islam, so since your students come from homogenous backgrounds, you'd want to counter-balance it with a show like All American Muslim.) You could also consider Minaret, which is an excellent novel by Leila Aboulela, about a young Sudanese Muslim woman who comes from a wealthy family and is forced into exile in London.  There's a glimpse into the Muslim community, its complexities as well as class and generational clashes.

[spork]

Axis of Evil comedy tour

[summers_off]

You should contact your librarian.  Our campus has a library subscription to NetFlix, and we can order many movies and tv shows on DVD to show in class.  Not sure what your library has, and I don't know if this show is on DVD, but it certainly is worth asking!

[yemaya]

Tuxedo_Cat - you might want to be aware that the Muslims on All American Muslim are Shia, which are a small minority.  There's a lot of intolerance towards Shi'ism amongst Sunnis.  There is a bit of controversy amongst Sunni Muslims who argue that as a minority (10-15%), it's problematic to depict a bunch of Lebanese-American Shiites as "typical" Muslims, as well as criticisms that the diverse, global nature of Islam makes it hard to depict "typical" Muslims even in the US.  I'd forgotten about this when I wrote my original post to you.

To a degree, the show may also reinforce conceptions that Islam isn't very women-friendly - the lack of support for the woman who wants to start her own nightclub, the fact that most of the women are either stay-at-home or have clerical jobs and the fact that one unmarried young woman is more or less "forbidden" from moving out on her own.  You'd need to be prepared to talk about how the expectation that children live with their parents until marriage is not exclusive to either Islam or Lebanese culture.  They might also get hung up on the women wearing hijab being "repressed."  (I've known more than one Muslim woman who would be very quick to assert that it was entirely her choice to wear hajib and I wouldn't doubt it.  I've also known some who would insist that their modesty is a feminist decision - that they're forcing people to see them for them, and not what they look like.)

Note: The show isn't available on DVD (yet), but if your classroom has a wireless or internet hook-up, you can stream full episodes online here: http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/all-american-muslim/videos/332553

[tuxedo_cat]

Thanks so much for the additional suggestions, everyone.  I can't pull up the Axis of Evil video at the moment, spork, but their work is truly hilarious (one of the comedians seems to be a regular on "Wait, Wait!" these days).

Thanks for the additional insights, yemaya -- especially important for this class, since it's also a Women's Studies course.  If we watch some episodes that deal with more of the gender issues, I'll set up a structured discussion of what's excluded, and what stands in as representative.  I have to think there are some online commentaries on the show out there, too.

And thank you for the suggestion about streaming episodes!  That's the technical hurdle I was hoping would have a work-around.

[yemaya]

Arranged would be excellent for a multiculturailsm course in Women's Studies, if you decide that AAM won't work for you.  It's readily available via DVD, and if you have a Netflix account, you can stream it to check it out first.

[tuxedo_cat]

Arranged would be excellent for a multiculturailsm course in Women's Studies, if you decide that AAM won't work for you.  It's readily available via DVD, and if you have a Netflix account, you can stream it to check it out first.

Thanks for this additional suggestion!  I'll see if I can find that at my local rental place, or get it on Netflix.

[grendel]

I think "Arranged" is sweet but not terribly complex. One short film I'd recommend (though it's in French) is a short film that was part of the compilation "Paris, Je T'aime" -- a segment directed by Gurinder Chadha called "Quais de Seine." It raises a lot of issues about Muslims and stereotyping and is ultimately optimistic. I suspect it was made as a politically tinged response to the French ban on veils. Gurinder Chadha also directed Bend it Like Beckham and has a nice, light touch.

I can't speak about "American Muslim" as I haven't seen it.

[traductio]

I don't know whether you have a specific focus on the United States, but you might consider Me and the Mosque, a documentary by Zarqa Nawaz, a Muslim woman living in Saskatchewan who is best known for being the creator of the CBC program Little Mosque on the Prairie. For that matter, I would also recommend Little Mosque, although it's hard to get in the United States.

Me and the Mosque would provide you with a wealth of perspectives about women in Islam in North America. Through a strange turn of events, I had the chance to spend the day with Nawaz about a year ago, and she is exceptionally talented, not to mention passionate and funny, which I am sure comes through in Me and the Mosque. (I actually haven't seen the doc yet, but I've seen most of Little Mosque, and she and I talked at length about what motivates her as a filmmaker.)

[yemaya]

I think "Arranged" is sweet but not terribly complex. One short film I'd recommend (though it's in French) is a short film that was part of the compilation "Paris, Je T'aime" -- a segment directed by Gurinder Chadha called "Quais de Seine." It raises a lot of issues about Muslims and stereotyping and is ultimately optimistic. I suspect it was made as a politically tinged response to the French ban on veils. Gurinder Chadha also directed Bend it Like Beckham and has a nice, light touch.

I can't speak about "American Muslim" as I haven't seen it.

Oh, I agree that it's not terribly complex.  But for a group of students who are not from backgrounds where they have a lot of exposure to this sort of thing, it's not a bad idea to keep it simple.  "Quais de Seine" is a great idea.

[lenniel]

Axis of Evil comedy tour

This film is hysterical and available through interlibrary loan, I think.  I also have "Allah made me funny", which I've used in some classes.  The humor is clean and the comics are from different backgrounds - one is Palestinian, one Indian, one African-American.  I've not seen "American Muslim" but have heard good things.

In one of my classes, a student sent me a clip to Morgan Spurlock's show "30 days as..." where an all-American, white Christian guy lived as an orthodox Muslim for 30 days.  We only watched a bit of it, but it was amazing and the students responded immediately.  I think you can still find it here: http://islamicmultimedia.blogspot.com/2007/01/30-days-as-muslim.html

There are some excellent new films out about Islam and the media.  The best distributor is Arab Film Distribution, though there are many more (I have a list, if you want to send me a PM).  Lastly, there is a new critically received documentary called "Valentino's Ghost" that takes on the image of the Arab in film and literature.  I missed the screening at a recent conference, but it should now be available.

[spork]

For the literature component, I highly recommend Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.