National Arab American Organizations Refuse Lowe's Donations

posted on: Dec 14, 2011

The leaders of ACCESS and the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) today said their organizations will no longer accept donations from Lowe’s.

NNAAC Director Nadia Tonova made the announcement this morning as a guest on WDET’s The Craig Fahle show. She was speaking in response to a Lowe’s’ decision to pull its advertising from reality TV show “All-American Muslim” on The Learning Channel. Lowe’s made the move under pressure from the Florida Family Association, a fundamentalist Christian group that claims the program “riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.”

NNAAC – which represents 22 nonprofit grassroots Arab American nonprofits nationwide, and its parent organization, ACCESS, have accepted donations from local Lowe’s stores in support of community volunteer efforts, but Tonova said neither NNAAC nor ACCESS will to do so in the future. “While we understand that this was a corporate decision to pull advertising from the show, we feel that the Lowe’s position does not align with our values,” Tonova said.

ACCESS Executive Director Hassan Jaber echoed that decision, saying Lowe’s’ actions stand in direct contradiction to ACCESS’ local and national agenda to eradicate bigotry and stereotyping.

Tonova said Lowe’s decision perpetuates bigotry and Islamophobia – a problem she said is “very much alive and well” in the United States, not just among fringe elements but also in mainstream political discourse including recent GOP presidential debates.

Jaber pointed to that trend as well, in a column posted Friday on Huffington Post Detroit. “When political leaders demonstrate that it’s OK to tarnish an entire ethnic or religious group, xenophobic rhetoric enters the mainstream public discourse in a way that encourages intolerant and extreme reactions,” Jaber wrote.

Tonova today said the Lowe’s issue presents a teachable moment for NNAAC, a coalition of Arab American organizations in 10 states and Washington DC. “This is a great opportunity to stand up against this larger issue and educate the nation on Islam and our community,” Tonova said.

Lowe’s decision to withdraw its advertising has sparked a backlash. Two members of Congress have issued statements criticizing the decision and insisting the ads be reinstated, and an online petition has garnered more than 20,000 signatures. The petition calls on corporate sponsors of the TLC program to “stand up for our American values and fight back against bigotry and fear-mongering by publicly repudiating calls to stop advertising during TLC’s ‘All-American Muslim.’” Both Jaber and Tonova have signed the petition, as have ACCESS CFO Maha Friej and ACCESS board president Wadad Abed.

National Network for Arab American Communities