NEW YORK, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Lowe's has pulled advertising from a U.S. Muslim reality TV show, citing complaints from "multiple sides of the viewer spectrum," a spokeswoman said.
The national home improvement and appliance store chain removed commercials from the "All-American Muslim" show's Sunday 10 p.m. slot on cable network TLC, The Hollywood Reporter said.
"We understand the program raised concerns, complaints or issues from multiple sides of the viewer spectrum, which we found after doing research of news articles and blogs covering the show," an unnamed Lowe's spokeswoman told the entertainment industry newspaper Friday. "We based our decision to pull the advertising on this research and after hearing the concerns we received through e-mails, calls, through social media and in news reports."
On Twitter, the company said it did not pull advertising "based solely on the complaints or e-mails of any one group."
Russell Simmons, hip hop mogul and chairman of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, called the move Islamaphobic and asked Lowe's to support the television show and reverse its stance, Entertainment Weekly reported.
"This can't happen in America; [Lowe's] needs to fix this immediately," Simmons told the magazine. "They can't get away with that, it's ridiculous. There are American principals at stake here. I can't imagine the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the National Urban League, or any organization that fights for their own rights will allow this to happen to any other group because they know they're next."
