Amy Hunter, wtop.com

WASHINGTON — One is a tattooed single mom with an affinity for piercings. Another is an ambitious businesswoman with a husband, a 6-year-old son and dreams of opening a nightclub. And another works part-time as a secretary, raises two kids and always wears a hijab.

Shadia Amen, Nina Bazzy-Aliahmad and Zaynab Zaban are very different women, but they have a few things in common. They are Muslim Americans, and they are the stars of a new TLC reality show, “All-American Muslim.”

The eight-episode series, which premiered on Sunday night, takes an inside look at the lives of five Muslim American families living in Dearborn, Mich., home to the largest population of Arab Americans in the U.S.

“The whole point of doing this is to bring out what Muslims are,” Nawal Aoude, a castmember, told the The Detroit Free Press. “We want to set good examples, show that we are still traditional but that we are Americans, too.”

The show is the first of its kind depicting the lives of Muslim Americans, a diverse, often misunderstood community. The five families chosen for the show vary greatly in their conservatism and observance of certain islamic traditions, but all avow their Muslim faith and their Americanism.

Haris Tarin, director of the Washington D.C. Office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, watched the show’s premiere and was pleased with what he saw.

“I think it’s a good start. The fact that Hollywood and TLC are taking an interest in the Muslim community is a good thing.

“It’s not representative of the whole Muslim American experience, but TLC is not looking to be completely representative. TLC is looking for a compelling story and these families have compelling stories,” he says.

Tarin says the show zeroes in on the experiences of Arab-American families living in a particular location, creating a “snapshot of a part of the Muslim American experience.”

“Just as ‘Sister Wives’ is not representative of all Mormans, ‘All-American Muslim’ is not representative of all Muslims,” he says.

Still, Tarin sees the series as a positive step in showing “that Muslim Americans have everyday lives, that they are struggling to be Americans and they are struggling to lead happy lives. It personalizes the experiences of our community.”

The show airs on TLC on Sundays at 10 p.m. For more information, click here.

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