Cornerstone

Muslim in America

In 2005, the first season of 30 Days included an episode on being Muslim in America. That same year, Morgan Spurlock commented on the purpose of the series as looking at “important societal cornerstonef13s of debate”:

We live in a world of fear, a world of prejudice, a world of judgments. Each day we are looked at and judged by the color of our skin, by the clothes we wear, by the friends we have, and by who we choose to worship. My goal was to create something that turned the mirror on these issues in a way that had never been done in network television, to really have someone walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, to see the world through another’s eyes. . . Each week millions of Americans were moved by the journeys they witnessed. The show looked at important societal cornerstonef13s of debate like the sad state of minimum wage jobs in America, binge drinking with today’s youth, performance-enhancing drugs, homosexual lifestyles, the environment, and lastly, what is it really like to be a Muslim in America.
(2005 Muslim Public Affairs Council Awards)

In 2010, a Time magazine poll surveyed contemporary attitudes toward Muslims in America for an article on the Manhattan mosque controversy.

Yet the survey also revealed that many Americans harbor lingering animosity toward Muslims. Twenty-eight percent of voters do not believe Muslims should be eligible to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Nearly one-third of the country thinks adherents of Islam should be barred from running for President–a slightly higher percentage than the 24% who mistakenly believe the current occupant of the Oval Office is himself a Muslim. (Time Poll, Aug 2010)