Lowe's Big 'All-American Muslim' Mistake: The Ultimate Non-Apology

Home improvement store Lowe's, whose new slogan for 2011 is "Never Stop Improving," should really take some of its own advice.

The company has caused a bit of a PR disaster when it decided to pull its advertising from the TLC documentary reality show "All-American Muslim."

The show, which follows the daily lives of American Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan, was put on the air in an attempt to highlight the fact that Muslim families are just like any other American families; they just happen to practice a different religion.

Lowe's, apparently, wants none of that.

It's bad enough that Lowe's decided to pull its advertising from the show, but the "apology" that the company issued is even more infuriating. Here's the full statement:

"It appears that we managed to step into a hotly contested debate with strong views from virtually every angle and perspective – social, political and otherwise – and we’ve managed to make some people very unhappy. We are sincerely sorry. We have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, across our workforce and our customers, and we’re proud of that longstanding commitment.

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 lighting 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.

We strongly support and respect the right of our customers, the community at large, and our employees to have different views. If we have made anyone question that commitment, we apologize.

Thank you for allowing us to further explain our position."

First of all, this is a non-apology. Lowe's took steps here to apologize for making people "very unhappy," but made no effort to apologize for the actual pulling of the advertising.

Secondly, the company attempts to explain that people have "strong political and societal views on this topic." What views? Which topic? The thesis of the show is that we shouldn't judge or persecute a group based on their religion. Merely by saying that there is a "topic" or "debate" here, Lowe's implies that there is a question about whether a group should be persecuted for their religion, and that there are equal numbers of their customers on either side.

And if that's the case, Lowe's chose to side with the group who thinks it's wrong to have a show that paints Muslim families in a positive light on television. So they did not, as they say "respectfully defer" to individuals for the "debate." What they did was implicitly declare that they oppose the idea that it's okay to be a Muslim American.

So if you need me, Lowe's, I'll be over at Home Depot (or better yet, my local hardware store). And if you're interested, I have some suggestions as to what you can do with all the 1/2-inch drill bits that you won't be selling.