In the past decade, reality TV has taken us to a lot of places: from midnight patrols with police on “COPS” in the 90s to the Seaside Heights bungalow of The “Jersey Shore’s” Guidos and Guidettes. Some more benign (“Ace of Cakes”) than others (“Sister Wives”), reality TV shows have become cultural powerhouses, overtaking coveted prime-time television slots and embedding themselves in national dialogue and debate.

TLC, in particular, seems to have built itself a niche in the reality TV show landscape, spawning the likes of the now-defunct “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” and the strangely addicting “My Strange Addiction.” This past weekend, TLC debuted the latest in its line-up: “All-American Muslim." 

The series explores the lives of five Muslim families living in Dearborn, Michigan, a city that boasts the largest Arab population in the U.S. The families showcased, all Lebanese-American, are mostly second-generation Americans. 

“How to Marry a Muslim”, the first of the series to air, is technically about marriage, but -- perhaps by accident -- the hour-long episode seemed dominated by the story-lines and personalities of the show’s dynamic women. The plot centered around Shadia Amen, a self-proclaimed rebel, and her marriage to Jeff, an Irish-Catholic Christian, who’s preparing for his impending nuptials by converting to Islam to appease both Shadia and her parents.

We’re also introduced to Shadia’s sister, Suehaila; Nina Bazzi, a neighbor who’s trying to open a nightclub; and Nawal Aoude, who’s expecting a baby with her doting husband. Angela Jaafar is married to Deputy Chief Sheriff Mike Jaafar and Zaynab Zaban, married to Fouad Zaban, the local high school football coach. 

The structure of the series includes the expected reality TV show conventions -- interviews with the cast members interspersed between scenes to serve as narration -- but it also employs a second talk-show style interlude that has members of the cast sitting on couches and discussing issues of the show together. 

The discussion, so far, has been shallow -- they conclude that a Muslim women is prohibited from marrying outside her religion and that the hijab is a matter of choice. Emotions seem to flare during the latter topic’s discussion but it ends before the matter is explored more deeply.

What’s a Muslim show without controversy? Most of it occurs outside of All-American Muslim’s hour-long premiere. Daniel Horowitz’s Front Page Mag produced a column comparing Muslims to Nazis and called the show a “programmed deception”, an “unreality show meant to promote the myth that Muslims are just another minority fully integrated into America”.  

“Noted Islamophobe” Pamela Gellar (her words, not mine) is not a fan either. “Clearly this program is an attempt to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to bully them into thinking that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show,” she writes on her blog.

Before the series even aired, several Facebook pages sprung up decrying TLC and there’s even a petition you can sign if you feel strongly enough about the show to see it cancelled.

“Islam is being portrayed as just another religion by this TLC ‘reality’ show,” complains one page calling for a boycott of the channel, “True Islam can be seen world wide with beheadings, stonings, amputations, hangings, oppression of women, minorities and GLOBAL JIHAD.” 

“‘All American Muslim’ is an oxy-moran (sic), for the simple fact that you cannot be a devout Muslim and a good American.”

Let’s be generous -- and I try to be -- and assume that the author of this charming diatribe has not been exposed to more honest portrayals of Muslims than the ones Pamela Gellar and Daniel Horowitz would have you believe. The excuse is almost believable.

Because despite achieving super-stardom on the evening news and movies about terrorists, Muslims have yet to establish a visible presence on American TV screens. Though they score the occasional token role -- most notably “Community’s” Palestinian-American Abed on or “24’s” Pakistani-American Nadia Yassir -- such characters are rarely portrayed as devout or religious. The character’s religion isn’t so much a function of his personality or life but an attempt to diversify an otherwise mostly White Christian cast. 

When they’re not being tokenized, Muslims are stereotyped, like “Aliens in America’s” Pakistani Muslim Raja Musharaff, who’s not a terrorist but has a funny name, silly accent and wears a dress (it’s called a shalwar khamees) -- all of which are exploited for the show’s principle jokes and pratfalls. It was really very funny to anyone with a terrible sense of humor.

As of yet, Muslims haven’t had much visibility on reality TV shows either, besides flitting appearances on prize shows like “America’s Next Top Model” (Nida, cycle 14) or “Big Brother” (Kaysar, season 6). 

One of the only -- and most outstanding -- examples is Morgan Spurlock’s “30 Days,” the unfortunately short-lived series that placed people in unfamiliar situations to live in for an entire month. The first season included an episode called “Muslims and America” where Dave, a Christian-American who’s idea of a Muslim was “a man with an AK-47 at war with someone”, spent 30 days living the life of devout Muslim in -- where else? -- Dearborn, Michigan.

Dressed in a white tunic, pants and skullcap and carrying a Quran, Dave gets stopped and searched at the airport for the first time. When he arrives in Dearborn, he visits the local mosque, where he is taught how to pray.

It was entertaining, yes -- but the show was also informative, exploring the issues affecting Muslim-Americans as well as the ones about which non-Muslims are most curious. It was humorous without being insensitive and the “real-life” Muslims featured were not stereotypes nor were they atypical.

It’s difficult to believe that a show on TLC -- the same channel that houses the likes of “Little People, Big World” and “Toddlers & Tiaras” -- could handle the subject with as much sensitivity and deftness as Morgan Spurlock. The show could easily slip into the voyeurism and scandal that make reality TV shows like “Teen Mom” and “Jersey Shore” so popular. But, maybe by virtue of the show’s likable and down-to-earth characters, it skillfully walks the line of entertainment and edification.

I’d like to think “All-American Muslim” might benefit from its home at TLC. The channel is unpretentious and draws a large, diverse audience of all ages and backgrounds. At TLC,  “All-American Muslim” will reach demographics of people who may not be as exposed to Muslims as real, live human beings instead of targets on a map of the Middle East.

There are some qualms -- most Muslims are not Arab. The first Muslims in America were black slaves; the largest population of Muslims exists in Indonesia. Muslims are diverse in culture, language and ethnicity. Islam is a religion, not a culture or nation.

The Muslims on this show, however, are exclusively Arab-Lebanese. Bilal Amen sucks on a hookah pipe while conversing with his father. Shadia’s wedding features a belly dancer. These are elements of Arab culture, not Islamic tradition; but with a show that will be perceived to be a mirror of Muslim-American society, they may very well be mistaken for the latter. In the process of breaking stereotypes, it’s so easy to create them. 

The experiences of Muslim-Americans navigating a post-9/11 America are vast and diverse, but most Muslims do not live in Dearborn. Most Muslims do not go to high school with large groups of other Muslims. Most Muslims do not have the luxury of a local mosque. Dearborn is unique and the experiences of Muslims living in it are also very unique.

Though some have already denounced the series after one episode -- Muslim “comedian” Aman Ali wrote a dismissive and judgmental piece for CNN that ridiculed the cast’s men for being “boring” and its women for being too “liberal” --  most have found it to be, at least, entertaining.

Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ LA branch praised the show for “humanizing” Muslims. Muslim civil rights activist Dawud Walid didn’t enjoy the show -- particularly for its conflation of the “Arab” and “Muslim” identities -- but he’s not disparaging it either.

“At the end of the day,” Walid wrote on his blog, “something beneficial has already come from it... and that is conversation.”

“All-American Muslim” shows potential to be a worthy platform for real, honest discussions on Islam and Americanism; but it’s already proven itself to be able to inspire meaningful discussions outside the city limits of Dearborn, Michigan. And for this American-Muslim, that’s enough reason to continue watching.

Reach writer Tasbeeh Herwees here