American McMuslim [VIDEO]

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 11:01 AM on December 23, 2006.

This program, from a series created by Supersize Me's Morgan Spurlock, has a young white Christian man from West Virginny live with a Pakistani Muslim couple in Michigan for a month.

They eat, pray, study and live together.

The man, Dave Stacey, is an exceptional sport, participating when he can, questioning when he can't. He's also under the additional discomfort of being away from his family and all that's given his life meaning in the past. In other words: it suffers from the same heartily unscientific flaws that all "reality" TV suffers from.

The participating Muslims, on the other hand, are far more practiced at dealing with proximate discomfort so their tolerance often (though not always) appears effortless.

Spurlock peppers the experiment with 'man on the street' interviews on Islamic culture, exposing ignorance and resurrecting the American Holy Ghost of the Wild West.

Asked what he would do if the Muslim call to prayer were broadcast next door, a man responds (paraphrasing): I'd go crank up my stereo with some Tom Petty or maybe some Duran Duran and give 'em some payback. Because that's my right as an American.

This video is over 40 minutes...

Tagged as: tv, christianity, islam

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.