The Learning Channel (TLC) recently launched a program titled “All-American Muslim.” Whether what is profiled in the series is indicative of all, most or some Muslims in America is open to debate.

According to various news reports, the show’s launch was welcomed with favorable ratings, which then began to decline with every passing episode, to the point that one could reasonably say the show’s ratings were “in the tank.”

Lowe’s Home Improvement was one of the initial advertisers of the show. As the show’s ratings plummeted, Lowe’s made the decision to pull its advertising. This is not an unusual business decision for a company like Lowe’s. After all, the whole idea of advertising is to reach viewers. If there are no viewers, what’s the point of spending the advertising dollars?

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism trial ever in the history of the U.S. and a Muslim Brotherhood front group connected to the terrorist organization Hamas, responded with fury to the Lowe’s decision. According to CAIR, such a decision could only have been motivated by anti-Muslim sentiments.

A California state senator, Ted Lieu, blustered that Lowe’s was “bigoted, shameful and un-American.”

Of course, these allegations are absurd on their face. If Lowe’s was “anti-Muslim” or “bigoted,” it would never have chosen to advertise on the program in the first place. The company could have quietly declined, out of sight of any public scrutiny.

In the past I have sold television advertising time, and I know that not every company you approach decides to advertise on a particular program. Thus I am certain that there were companies TLC approached that declined to advertise on this program. Are they “anti-Muslim” and “bigoted” for making a business decision that it was not in their best interest to advertise on “All-American Muslim”? Of course not.

CAIR and its allies playing the victim card is nothing new. What this latest brouhaha reveals is the depths they will sink to and the heights of their hysteria.

I believe the reason for this is that, as more and more Americans become familiar with the ideological threat of radical Islam, the truth about Sharia law and the real agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood and its front organizations like CAIR, they are reacting with a justifiable concern. This growing grassroots concern is percolating up to elected officials, resulting in actions such as Rep. Peter King’s congressional hearings on Muslim radicalization and laws passed in a handful of states that prohibit courts from applying foreign law, including Sharia law, in certain cases.

CAIR and its enablers realize they are losing the battle for public opinion. They are unable to dispute the facts, so the only card they have to play is the victim card, lashing out with increasing ferocity in the hope of diverting attention from the real issue — that the ideology of radical Islam is a genuine threat to the safety, security and freedom of the United States.



To illustrate, in 1998, CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad was quoted in a California newspaper as saying, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Qur’an should be the highest authority in America.”

This direct assault on the authority of the Constitution is something CAIR can’t defend, so it attacks. Just last year, CAIR went so far as to allege the Republican Party was a “hate group.”

I believe that the American people are beginning to tune out the hysterical rantings of organizations like CAIR. In response, CAIR is increasing the decibel level of its rants, and its latest absurdity is its diatribe against Lowe’s. This is why the organization I founded, ACT! for America, has launched a petition in support of Lowe’s, to let Lowe’s know that most Americans support its right to make advertising decisions free from the bullying tactics of groups like CAIR.

In one respect, CAIR is doing America a great service. With every escalation of its unfounded attacks, it provides more Americans with the opportunity to see who they really are — not a “civil rights organization,” but a radical group intent on imposing Sharia law on America.

Brigitte Gabriel is an international terrorism analyst and a two-times New York Times best-selling author of Because They Hate and They Must Be Stopped. She is the president of ACT for America.org, the largest national security grassroots movement in the U.S.