Giving in to an obscure group of haters in Florida may have seemed like a good idea to the managers of Lowe's last week. But the big box home improvement store's quiet decision to pull its advertising from Discovery/The Learning Channel's All-American Muslim has done exactly what they apparently figured they were avoiding: generated a backlash.

Music entrpreneur Russell Simmons has bought the ad space on TLC. A petition hosted by moveon.org urging other companies not to pull their advertising is only a few hundred names away from its 25,000-signature goal. A California state senator has excoriated the company, called for an investigation and threatened a legislative motion of censure. And the publicity keeps piling up.

Among other things, the moveon.org petition states:

The visible aim of those who have threatened the show's supporters is to propagate hatred against fellow Americans because of their religious beliefs, while increasing the success of their own bigoted industries. Ultimately, it is these same critics who have often touted the question: "Where are the mainstream Muslims?" We believe that "All-American Muslim" portrays just that—mainstream American Muslims—and that these critics should celebrate an effort like this, not condemn it. Yet their reactions leave no more proof necessary of their actual, hate-mongering intentions. And we believe that America and our American companies are above that.

Via Twitter, Simmons announced he was buying space on the the All-American Muslim show. He also supported the moveon.org petition drive.

According to Advertising Age, Lowe's spent about $2.6 million on advertising on TLC in the first 10 months of 2011. TLC ranked 10th among cable networks on which Lowe's purchased ad dollars. Overall, the company spent approximately $201.5 million on television advertising through the third quarter, according to Kantar Media.

If shaming its bigotry doesn't work, perhaps Lowe's will look again at its bottom line. Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, writes:

American Muslims, a vibrant and diverse community with a global outreach, represent a significant and growing market with substantial buying power. An American Muslim market consumer study released by DinarStandard estimates that the 5.8 million to 6.7 million Muslims in America (2010) had an aggregate 2010 disposable income ranging between $107 billion to $124 billion. The study estimates that American Muslims spend $33 billion yearly on housing and housing services—including shopping at places like Walmart, Home Depot and of course Lowe’s.

Meanwhile, the defender of "biblical values" that started it all, the Florida Family Association, is claiming that "Anonymous" hacked its website. Some Twitter messages tend to back that up.