To Watch: 30 Days

Shamael and Sadia Haque are first generation Pakistani Americans living in a suburb of Dearborn. Shamael is a neuropsychiatry resident in Detroit while Sadia is in a law school in Lansing. Tonight's episode of Morgan Spurlock's FOX show 30 Days, is a documentary of how they hosted a devout Christian, David Stacy in their house for 30 days.

I am quite keen on watching the show and wanted to bring it to your attention as well. Leaving aside the clash of civilization meme, I think that it is imperative to have Muslim-American lives on national tv - without the facade of a narrative.

Spurlock maintains that none of the shows are in any way scripted. Here is what Morgan Spurlock wrote on his blog about tonight's episode:

Now, this week, we see David Stacy, a Christian from WV, who agrees to immerse himself in Muslim culture for 30 Days to see what its really like to be a Muslim in America. I applaud his bravery for putting himself in such a situation. To take himself out of the safety zone of his life to walk a mile in another man's shoes. Now one person is saying that we went into this with pre-conceived ideas, when in actuality what we went in with were hopes of what could happen. No one knew how David would react when he got there. You can't predict human nature. He could say all his fears and anger were justified and go home vindicated, but what really happened was he went into this situation, making himself vulnerable to a new culture, a new people and new experiences that he'd never been exposed. And as he himself says, he emerged on the other side a better man for it, more compassionate, tolerant and understanding. What you will see in this episode exceeded any expection or hope I ever thought possible.

We live in a country where 3 in every 20 people have passports. That's only 15%. We rarely think beyond our own communities, let alone beyond our borders. What this show is about is what happens when you let your guard down to learn something new about someone else; someone you judged for reasons that weren't even supported by your own experiences, but by stereotypes, rumors and conditioning.

This episode is about American born muslims, people whose parents came to America with the same hopes and aspirations as your and my ancestors. They are Americans, just like you and me, and they have a deep faith and belief in God.

Should we only fear Muslims? There are dangerous and untrustworthy people of all races, religions and nationalities all over the world.