Rep. Murphy Blasts Lowe's for Pulling Ad

U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy is asking Lowe's to reconsider pulling ads.

The firestorm against Lowe’s pulling ads from a Learning Channel Show about American Muslims moved to Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy said he is leading a group of members of Congress who are calling on Lowe’s to reconsider their decision.

Lowe’s pulled its ads from The Learning Channel's reality show "All-American Muslim" after complaints from The Florida Family Association, an organization Murphy called a “right wing anti-Muslim group" that thinks the mission of Islam is to destroy America.

“This is a major American company rubber stamping basic foundational bigotry against a major American religious group,” Murphy said.

He defended bringing this issue up in Congress.

“This country was founded on the premise of religious freedom and this body should never remain silent when a group of people is marginalized just because they worship a different God,” Murphy said.

Murphy said his message to the people who made the decision at Lowe’s, and anyone else who is “considering getting behind the growing Anti-Muslim bias” is “You’re better than this.”

Lowe’s defended its decision on its Facebook page.

“Lowe’s has received a significant amount of communication on this program, from every perspective possible. 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,” Lowe’s posted. “

Murphy said there is a lot to fear when it comes to Islamic groups who seek to do harm to America, but that is not the case with the TV show or the people represented in it.

“But we have nothing to fear from a TV program called ‘All-America Muslim’ and we have nothing to fear from the tens of millions of peace-loving, patriotic Muslim-Americans who are just like those portrayed in that show,” Murphy said.

More than 30,000 people have signed a petition on MoveOn.org, calling for Lowe’s to support the TV series.

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