Morgan Spurlock's Supersized Islamist BS ("Inside an American Muslim Family" reality TV series)

DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL.COM ^ | JUNE 24, 2005 | DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL

[CHARLITE]

Morgan Spurlock got famous from his Oscar-nominated documentary, "Supersize Me." He ingested supersized McDonald's meals three times a day for thirty days, then blamed McDonald's for his changed physique and health.

Now, he's using his thirty-day premise to get Americans to ingest his bloated version of radical Islam on cable's F/X Network.

Last year, I received a request to appear in Spurlock's new reality show, "30 Days." The six-episode series began Wednesday Night. The episode for which I was being recruited, "Inside an American Muslim Family," airs next Wednesday. It features Spurlock's childhood friend from West Virginia, David Stacy, spending thirty days "living as a Muslim" in the Detroit area.

While he is often referred to as a "journalist," and Spurlock touts "30 Days" as a "documentary," the outcome of the show was already decided before production began.

A show summary sent to me before taping began said, "This process aims to deconstruct common misconceptions and stereotypes . . . . [O]ur character will learn firsthand about Islam and the daily issues that . . . Muslims in America face today. The viewers will witness our character emerge from the immersion situation with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Muslim-American experience. . . . The potential is great for this program to enlighten a national television audience about the Muslim American experience and increase their compassion, understanding and support."

I asked the show's executive producers--all of whom worked for Michael Moore--how this could be a documentary when they'd already decided the outcome. Wasn't it possible, I asked, that the subject of the program, Stacy, would come out seeing that there isn't Islamophobia to the extent that the Muslim community claims? Might Stacy see that there is disturbingly strong support in the Detroit area Islamic community for terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah--a fact regularly documented in the normally pliant Detroit media?

No, producers told me. "Morgan wants the show to demonstrate to America that we are Islamophobic and that 9/11's biggest victims are Muslims." With this in mind, I agreed to be filmed only with final approval of my appearance, which I never gave.

When I met David Stacy, I was amazed at how ignorant and uninformed he was. This newly-inducted "expert" on Islam never heard of Wahhabism--the extremist Sunni strain of Islam that now dominates the religion. He was unfamiliar with terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. He did not believe me that Hezbollah murdered hundreds of U.S. Marines and civilians in Beirut and elsewhere. He seemed mystified to learn that President Bush shut down American Islamic charities, like the Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, for funding Hamas and Al Qaeda. He hadn't a clue about taqiyyah, the Koranic principle allowing deception of non-Muslims.

He told me and a Detroit radio show that Muslims are no more representative of Qaeda and Hamas than Timothy McVeigh is representative of Christianity. Actually, McVeigh was an atheist.

Spurlock planned the outcome of this "immersion" show and he found the perfect tabula rasa in Stacy. Spurlock also found the perfect "experts" and "key members" of Detroit's Islamic community to propagandize their easily swayed dupe.

Paul Findley is listed as an "expert" consultant for the show. A non-Muslim with no special knowledge of Islam, Findley's real expertise is having been an anti-Israel congressman who was defeated when he was targeted by Jewish groups. Another "expert" is Muqtedar Khan, a faux moderate professor with close ties to Muslim extremist group, Al Muhajiroun, as documented by Militant Islam Monitor. Khan criticized the Dalai Lama for opposing forced conversion to Islam, and got angry when I exposed it in a column I wrote. His columns urged understanding of how devout Muslims can be driven to commit terrorism because of the West's economic alliances. He justified Iraqi suicide attacks against U.S. soldiers as acts of frustration.

Stacy was taught by Imam Hassan Qazwini of Dearborn's Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in North America. Qazwini's mosque hosted Louis Farrakhan, who was introduced as "our dear brother" and "a freedom fighter." I was there and wrote about it for The Detroit News. I watched Qazwini cheer on Farrakhan's attacks on America and descriptions of Jews as "evil" and "forces of Satan."

Stacy's Muslim family was selected with the help of Haaris Ahmad, an activist in CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), which two former FBI counterterrorism directors have described as "a Hamas front-group." CAIR got its seed money indirectly from indicted Hamas political director Moussa Abu Marzook. Ahmad called my Detroit radio show to defend indicted, alleged Islamic Jihad terrorist leader Sami Al-Arian. He said Al-Arian's successful plans and fundraising for bus bombings which killed, among others, American Alisa Flatow, were an exercise of his "free speech."

When I told Spurlock's executive producer that I felt David Stacy was a moron, she replied that Imam Husham Al-Husainy, a prominent--if Ayatollah Khomeini-revering--Dearborn Shia cleric, "said the same thing" and refused to continue teaching him about Islam for the show.

The biggest morons, though, are not Stacy, but the TV critics and viewers who fall for this supersized phony "documentary."

[Brad’s Gramma]

He told me and a Detroit radio show that Muslims are no more representative of Qaeda and Hamas than Timothy McVeigh is representative of Christianity. Actually, McVeigh was an atheist.





Bump.

[Paul Atreides]

Boy, doesn't THAT sound familiar?

[Paul Atreides]

No, producers told me. "Morgan wants the show to demonstrate to America that we are Islamophobic and that 9/11's biggest victims are Muslims."

Big surprise!

[Brad’s Gramma]

Indeed it does.

This sickens me that SO many people will watch this and fall for it, hook, line & sinker.

[Bommer]

The entire series is nothing more but a PC commercial for the DNC.

[Paul Atreides]

We are going to P.C. ourselves into oblivion. We are the ones attacked, yet, we are supposed to spend the rest of our lives kissing the backsides of the attackers.

[cyborg]

I read about this in a city paper. He's also going to be working for minimum wage himself. I think he should stick to eating mcfries.

[Brad’s Gramma]

yet, we are supposed to spend the rest of our lives kissing the backsides of the attackers.

Not THIS chick!!!

[Army Air Corps]

"I read about this in a city paper. He's also going to be working for minimum wage himself. I think he should stick to eating mcfries." Another lefty did that in the heavily biased book Nickel and Dimed. Spurlock's movie Supersize Me should have been renamed An Idiot Demonstrates the Obvious. If I ate the biggest potions of fast food meals three times per day and did bloody nothing for excercise, I would not be surprised that I gained weight. That is what happens when we overindulge and do not exercise. Spurlock is a bleeding twit.

[cyborg]

I read Nickel and Dimed. I thought it was okay but to have a whole show devoted to Spurlock bogarting the idea is stupid. I never saw Supersize Me but it's popular amongst the vegan crowd for some reason.

[Echo Talon]

this guys show is BS, saw it the other day it was about working out and using supplements. It stank royal of a Michael Moore "Bowling for Columbine" job.

[xroadie]

So he ate macDonalds 4 times a day and gained weight and got sick in his movie. Big surprise. In his series the other day, he discovered that minimum wage is not enough to live on, another huge, earth shattering discovery. (I mean, has this guy ever worked a real job?) Now I suspect he will discover, by living with an American Muslim family, that they (Muslims)are people too.
Is there no beginning to this guy's talent?
Can we possible restate the obvious any more, and still sell it as top quality television?
The real appeal of this to the lefties is the snide condescension to middle America. Turn it on if you feel like it; makes me sicker than a month of McDonalds, though.

[cyborg]

The real appeal of this to the lefties is the snide condescension to middle America.

** You got that right! This show is going to be right up there with Oprah going to live in a housing project in Southside,Chicago.

[backhoe]

Islam, The Alleged Religion of Peace® ( TARP™ )? Click this picture:

No, I am not exaggerating. Click the pic, go to "last," and read backwards.
If you are not informed about this stuff, you will be made sick. If you are informed, you will be made mad, all over again.

[dead]

I remember hearing the promos for this show, where they say "Learn what's its like, living as a Muslim in today's America."

I thought to myself, it's probably alot like living as a Jew, Hindu, or Christian in today's America.

If Spurlock wants to do an informative and interesting show, he should try living as a Christian in today's Saudi Arabia or Sudan.

[GSlob]

The title about supersized islamist should properly relate to a TV adaptation of a story from the "Arabian Nights", where a pious Muslim was granted by Allah three wishes as a reward for his piety.
At his wife's instigation he requested becoming supersized, and was instantly made so to such an extent that he could not even move. So, again on the advice of his wife, he requested to be rid of such a calamity - and lo, he became a eunuch. The third and last wish was - again with the major input from his wife - spent by him on his request to be restored to the status quo ante.
This short story has been begging for centuries to be adapted as a TV miniseries, and it is good that Morgan Spurlock is finally attempting it. Say, a story of each wish could be made into a separate episode...

[Army Air Corps]

Nickel and Dimed had lots of problems. For one thing, the authoress blew a lot of her cash on marijuana. Also, she was on a job for no more than a few weeks and, therefore, was not able to stay long enough to earn anything beyond the starting hourly wage (many of the places at which she worked would increase the hourly wage after someone worked there for a couple of months). She had a conclusion and set about to prove her socialist beliefs.