Cultures collide on FX show '30 Days'

A Muslim family in Dearborn hosts W. Va. Christian in hopes of opening viewers' eyes.

By Mekeisha Madden Toby / The Detroit News

He didn't know anything about Muslims or their religion, but David Stacy knew he didn't like them, and he didn't trust them after September 11.

As a self-proclaimed red-blooded American and a Christian, Islam was synonymous with terrorism for Stacy. That was until he decided to participate in the experimental reality television show "30 Days" on FX. Created by documentarian Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me"), "30 Days" puts people in foreign surroundings for a month in the hope of educating both themselves and viewers.

Desperately wanting to learn more about a people and a religion he didn't understand, Stacy left the comforts of his Charleston, W. Va., home, his wife and young son and his job last summer to live with Shamael Haque and his wife, Sadia Shakir Haque, in Dearborn, a city with the largest concentration of Arab and Muslim people in America.

The episode airs at 10 tonight.

"I am so glad I did this," says Stacy, 34, during a recent phone interview from Charleston. "Hopefully, people will become enlightened."

The experience had Stacy confronting a religion that does not recognize Jesus Christ as the Lord's son, the fundamental key in Christianity. There also were cultural lessons.

The Haque and the Stacy families are the epitome of American life. Shamael Haque, 27, is in medical school and Sadia Shakir Haque, 28, is in law school -- the Muslim Cliff and Clair Huxtable.

Stacy is an insurance agent and his wife is a physical therapist. Like Stacy and his wife, the Haques also are parents of a small child. But certain customs, such as praying five times a day and learning Arabic, proved difficult for Stacy.

Later, as he began to embrace Islam, he found himself grappling with his duties as a good Christian.

Constantly at odds, Stacy argued with the Haques about September 11 one day and fought to get an Islamic-rights petition signed on another. During the latter, Stacy dressed in traditional Muslim garb, debated the less tolerant in the city of Howell around the same time a Ku Klux Klan rally was to take place.

"This is the first time I understood what it is like to be an African-American or Latino, to be different and looked at with distrust," Stacy says.

"My political and social views were so shallow. Now, I'm more active in my community, I pray three times a day, when I used to only pray every other day. I look at the world and Islam differently. An entire religion can't be blamed for the actions of a few."

The Haques, too, had reservations at first, but say they are glad they participated.

"I wasn't sure what to expect when we decided to do this show," Sadia Shakir Haque says. These days, the couple and Stacy often e-mail.

"I was so afraid that they were going to send a KKK guy to come and live with us," she says.

But Sadia Shakir Haque knew their decision was bigger than reality TV.

"My father was involved in a lot of interfaith activities when I was growing up," she says, "and I went to a Catholic university as an undergraduate, and I knew that Muslim people, my people, had gotten a bad rap after 9-11.

"We don't think we as Muslims should have to apologize for 9-11. We were born and raised in America, and 9-11 affected us the same way it affected all Americans. Dave understands that now, and our hope is that most of the viewers see that too."