Chris Murphy CSPAN - H 2011
CSPANLowe’s decision to pull advertising from TLC’s All-American Muslim has made it’s way to the Capitol.
On Tuesday, Democratic CT congressman Chris Murphy spoke to the House of Representatives regarding the company’s decision to remove its ads after receiving complaints by the Florida Family Association that accused the show of trying to hid anti-American views in the Muslim faith.
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In a nearly-five minute speech, Murphy, who is currently running for Joe Lieberman‘s Senate seat, said this type of “anti-Muslim bigotry” is not uncommon. “But, it’s one thing when a fringe-group or a radical unhinged pastor is doing it, it’s quite another when a Fortune 100 company is endorsing this nonsense.”
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The representative then explained his reasoning for addressing it on the House floor. “This is a major American company, rubber stamping basic foundational bigotry against a major American religious group,” he said. “This nation 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.”
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He then delivered a message specifically to Lowe’s, saying, “You’re better than this. You know that the history of this country and of this world never, ever looks kindly on this kind of marginalization that you’ve endorsed with your actions.”
‘He found a fan in Mia Farrow who has called for a boycott of Lowe’s on her Twitter account (as has Russell Simmons who recently said he bought up the advertising for the show).
“Good on you Chris!!!!” she tweeted after re-tweeting his “Shame on @lowes for pulling ads from new TLC show on Muslim-Americans. This is how bigotry wins,” Twitter statement.
Watch Murphy’s speech in full below.
