TVSquad

This week's episode featured a West Virginian man named David. He's a married, white, red-blooded American. 30 Days is a show that allows people to experience new lifestyles, often ones that they're uncomfortable with, to truly be able to "walk in someone else's shoes". In David's case, he's being sent to a city in Michigan that has one of the highest Muslim population in the entire United States. He'll have to dress, eat, pray, and live like a Muslim for the next thirty days. He will grow a beard and also study the Qu'ran. For a man that thinks of AK-27's and women in burkas when "Muslim" is mentioned, this'll be a challenge.

On Day 01, he has to dress up in his traditional Muslim clothes and go to the airport to catch his flight to Michigan. He gets plenty of paranoid stares and awkward glances and also gets stopped for a security check for the first time in his life. Already, he is experiencing what so many Muslims of today have to go through.

 
David lives with the Haques, a Muslim family, during this journey. The husband is a doctor and the wife is studying to become a lawyer. The first few days go fairly well but David then develops homesickness and also feels uncomfortable about going to the mosques to pray for something that he doesn't even know about (in Arabic!). Asking about the prayers wasn't helping him so he decides to learn Arabic to gain some sense of understanding. His progress is slow so he still doesn't feel comfortable praying, feeling as though he's betraying his own God.

Since he doesn't feel comfortable praying, the fact that Muslims pray five times a day doesn't help. He awkwardly stands by as the rest of the community close their eyes and kneel. He seeks the help of another mosque in Detroit and they give him a step-by-step diagram of what each praying position and prayer means in English. This is exactly what he needs and his progress speeds up a little more. He also learns that the teachings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are similar in many ways, the most important being: They all believe in one true God.

This episode would not have been complete without some sort of discussion on terrorism. Morgan Spurlock, the executive producer of the show, has segments throughout the show in which he wanders the streets of America to average-looking people and asks them what they think of when they hear "Muslim", "terrorist", etc. This paints a terribly negatively picture and some of these people admit to racial profiling. David began with similar feelings. Will his ways change by the end?

David also has to live Halal, which is a similar to the Kosher lifestyle. He misses his days of BBQ so he goes to a slaughterhouse to understand exactly what Halal means. It's no pork, no beer (poor David misses his beer), and meat has to be slaughtered in a certain way. After bringing home some meat for shish kabobs, he and the Haques and some of their friends sit down for some discussion. The talk gets angry when the topic turns to terrorism. David doesn't understand why so many of the terrorists kill in the name of Allah and why it's such a big shock why the Muslim community is being looked down upon because if it. The Haques and their friends say that they don't need to apologize for such a thing because it's that individual's issue. The Qu'ran's teachings are completely against what the terrorists have done. Why should 500 people apologize for the actions of five?

As he nears the end of his journey, David goes onto a radio talk show to take questions from listeners about his experience. The callers are all concerned about his experience and they talk about, of course, terrorism. David admits that he thought the same when he started but he's started to change his ways. Afterwards, he also asked to go out and try to get people to sign a petition to send racial profiling against Muslim-Americans. In his full Muslim outfit and beard, David goes out with his clip board and politely asks people on the sidewalk if they'd be willing to sign. People turn him down or simply walk away. Some stop to argue about why Muslim-Americans should be protected if terrorism is coming from them. David counters by asking about the Oklahoma City bombings. The petition may have not been necessarily successful but it shows that David has learned from his experience.

At his last Friday prayer, David finally kneels for the first time and actively participates. In his hand, he clutches a small cross.

The thirty days end with a surprise celebration at the Haques house, where David is presented with a cake that says, "Let's Agree to Disagree". Aww. David is happy with his experience but is relieved to be returning home to his wife and child. He shaves off his beard and gets back into his collared shirt and khakis.

Next week's episode features an ex-military man sent to live in a gay community in San Francisco. I wonder how that's going to work out...