Lowe's home improvement stores have pulled their commercials airing during episodes of TLC's "All-American Muslim," apparently after pressure from right-wing groups.

Katherine Cody, a public relations representative for Lowe's, emailed me a statement confirming that Lowe's had cancelled the remainder of its scheduled advertising.

"We understand the program raised concerns, complaints, or

issues from multiple sides of the viewer spectrum, which we found after doing

research of news articles and blogs covering the show. We based our decision to

pull the advertising on this research and after hearing the concerns we

received through emails, calls, through social media and in news reports," she wrote.

"All-American Muslim," which was

filmed in Dearborn

, follows the daily lives of five Metro Detroit Muslim families. TLC's press release for the show says, "Each episode offers an intimate look at their customs and celebrations,

as well as the misconceptions, conflicts and differences they face

outside-and within-their own community." The series has been

widely praised

by television critics around the nation.

An email allegedly sent from a Lowe's representative to the Florida Family Association, which is reproduced in entirety

here

, states, "While we continue to advertise on various cable networks, including TLC,

there are certain programs that do not meet Lowe’s advertising

guidelines, including the show you brought to our attention. Lowe's

will no longer be advertising on that program."

On Twitter, Lowe's official account is responding to angry customers.

We did not pull our ads based solely on the complaints or emails of any one group. It is never our intent to alienate anyone.

Lowe’s values diversity of thought in everyone, including our employees and prospective customers.

The Florida Family Association sounds like an innocuous enough group of citizens. That is, until you

read the form letter

the organization sent out to all corporations whose commercials appear during broadcasts of the program.

FFA claims on their website that 20 companies have pulled their advertising in response to the campaign or have responded they do not plan to air future commercials. Home Depot is

one of them

. Claims the Florida Family Association:

"The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while

excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present

danger to the liberties and traditional values that the majority of

Americans cherish."

And the FFA isn't the only group taking aim at the TLC program, reports Media Matters. The website

American Decency

is sponsoring a campaign to target every company who has or will advertise on the show. They call "All-American Muslim" a work of propaganda.

TLC isn't backing down. Spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg told me that "the show is continuing and there is strong advertising support for the show."

Owning a home, they say, is the basic tenet of the American Dream. But consider the symbolism of the nation's two largest corporate retail outlets selling that ideal of American success, effectively cancelling their support for a TV show that documents a group of peaceful Americans.

No, not Muslims. Americans.

Ostensibly, Lowe's believes that groups like the Florida Family Association or World Net Daily (who have published invective toward American Muslims that would be unthinkable if directed toward, say, African-Americans or Jews) represent a "broad spectrum" of customers and viewers. A representative from the

Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR)

in Washington D.C. told me there is no organized boycott or petition directed toward Lowe's. Instead, they're asking supporters to contact Lowe's.

Some will argue Lowe's has the right to discontinue advertising where it deems suitable -- an obvious point. But having a "right" doesn't make it right.

Caving to these groups' intolerant, dogmatic view that any religion apart from Christianity is a threat to our country isn't merely contrary to the beliefs of the Founding Fathers --but enabling to bigots of every cloth.

All week, blogs and newspapers and radio stations across the city have debated the argument of "

Who is a Detroiter"

and what responsibility that gives each of us. To all of you bursting with hometown pride for Detroit or anger at Wisconsin for stealing our

Mitten thing

for their own tourism campaign -- here is a real example of corporate interests abandoning a program about Detroiters based on the prejudiced invective of people who don't even live here. Effectively, supporting one truth of our 21st century Detroit story -- that people of different faiths create a diverse, tolerant and culturally rich community -- isn't worth the backlash it creates.

By aligning advertising decisions with the demands of people who cannot fathom that our neighbors aren't agents of terror posing as police officers and business owners and mothers and students, it's hard to swallow the argument that anti-Islamic rhetoric doesn't influence corporations like Lowe's. To those concerned with Detroit's reputation across the world, this smear campaign's pointed slander of our metropolitan city as base camp for American jihad should sicken you.

No matter if or what God we pray to, we're Detroiters first. If we want to earn that moniker, it should mean shouldering the responsibility to stand against hatred and bigotry aimed at any good citizen who calls the Motor City home.





TLC and Lowe's both responded to requests for comments concerning this story. The Florida Family Association did not return requests for comment. We will update this story with any developments.