Evolve Now

30 Days as a Muslim In America

I’ll admit it, I’ll watch pretty much any reality show at least once—and most of the time I end up mildly entertained or fervently obsessed (e.g. Project Runway, Kept). Last night I caught the latest episode of 30 Days on FX. This is show created by Morgan Spurlock who brought us Super Size Me about his 30 days eating nothing but McDonald’s food. The TV show concept is similar; people take on the challenge of steppping into another way of life for 30 days. In the first episode Morgan and his wife tried to survive for 30 days working minimum wage jobs.

Last night’s episode was about a conservative Christian from West Virginia who went to live with a Muslim family in Dearborn, Michigan for 30 days. The guy from WV, Dave, was a typical average American who thinks Islam is a religion based on violence and hate and opposed to Judeo-Christian values.

“As he befriends his Muslim host family and adopts their customs, he struggles deeply with his bias against a belief system that does not recognize Christ as the Son of God and his even stronger prejudice against a religion that is closely associated in many American’s minds with Osama Bin Laden and the terrorist activity of 9/11.”

This was fantastic television.

As part of the rules Dave must dress as a Muslim and observe all customs including attending services at the mosque. He experiences prejudice for the first time when he arrives at his local West Virginia airport wearing Islamic dress. He is pulled out of line, frisked, stared at and shunned. He was clearly shaken having gone through life as a white male in Americaand never, ever feeling like a minority or unwelcome. As Dave learned about Islam he was surprised not to confirm his preconceived notions but rather shatter them. He came away with a new appreciation for the peacefulness, beauty and discipline of Islam. And fully understood that the actions of a handful should not be allowed to define and decimate the character of billions of Muslims.

Perhaps the best and worst parts of the show were the short “basics of Islam” sections narrated by Morgan. He explained the 5 pillars of Islam (allegiance to one God, daily prayers, almsgiving, fasting and pilgrimage to Mecca), Islamic dietary restrictions and recognition of Jesus and Abraham as prophets in Islam. These were fantastic, simple explanations that every American should be required to see, but the cheesy cartoon illustrations were disrespectful. For a quick, easy to understand primers on Islam check out this.

I think what struck me the most about this program was that it on a basic cable channel, during prime-time. This wasn’t some elite PBS documentary but a genuine effort to explore what it is like to live differently from what you know. I think I’m pretty enlightened; I have spent the last two years learning about the tenets of Islam, its history, political Islam, the Muslim world, Islamic movements, etc. but seeing someone confront their own prejudice and seeing Muslims explain and practice their beliefs so intimately gave me a new perspective.

I urge you to check this out when it replays and next week’s episode Wednesday night at 10pm about a “God-fearing conservative homophobe from Red State America” who lives in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood with a gay roommate for 30 days.

posted by Rissa Roo @ 5:10 PM