Lawmaker: Lowe's 'bigoted' for pulling 'All-American Muslim' ads

A California state senator called on home improvement chain Lowe's to apologize for pulling advertising from a TV show featuring the lives of Muslim families.

Lowe's pulled advertising from Discovery Channel/TLC's "All-American Muslim" after the Florida Family Assn. complained about the show, which it called "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.” 

State Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) wrote a letter Saturday to Lowe's Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Niblock in which he called the decision to pull advertising from the show "bigoted, shameful, and un-American" and "profoundly ignorant." He demanded that the company rescind its action and apologize or face boycotts and legislative action.

"Lowe’s religious discrimination is the equivalent of a company asserting that it is pulling advertising from the Christian Broadcast Network’s 700 Club because the program somehow 'riskily hides' the agenda of Christian radicalized groups such as Aryan Nation," Lieu wrote. "That assertion would, of course, be utter nonsense and religious bigotry."

Lowe's issued a statement in which it apologized for having "managed to make some people very unhappy" but did not say it would reinstate advertising on the show.

"Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lightning rod for many of those views. As a result we did pull our advertising on this program. We believe it is best to respectfully defer to communities, individuals and groups to discuss and consider such issues of importance," the company statement said.

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-- Abby Sewell

Photo: A Lowe's store in Saugus, Mass. Credit: Michael Dwyer / Associated Press