WASHINGTON, 18 June 2003 — To combat negative stereotyping of Muslims and Islam in the US, the Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR) has launched an advertising campaign in leading US newspapers to inform Americans about the realities of Islam and Muslims.
“The campaign is in direct response to more than 200,000 e-mails we received from Americans throughout the United States requesting information about Islam and Muslims,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director.
Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the US, Awad said many Americans contacted CAIR in an effort to understand where Islam “stands on important issues such as terrorism, violence, women and human rights, and many people wanted to know what Islam stands for as a religion in terms of spirituality and honesty.”
CAIR is also working hard against what he called an organized campaign launched in the US to defame Islam. “There is an orchestrated, vicious campaign against Muslims in the media and within rightwing groups here that have started to scare people from thinking anything positive about Islam.”
Awad said, “Many people feel that these attacks against Islam have obscured the true picture and confuses people. As American Muslims, we want to set the record straight and help our fellow Americans know who we are and what we stand for, and provide accurate information about the Islamic community and Islam in general.”
Awad said the ads, based on themes critically important for non-Muslims to understand Islam, had been run in major national newspapers “where they will be read by both opinion-makers and readers.”
He said the ads were available to Islamic centers around the country to download and use free of charge, to run in their local newspapers, magazines, or even post in their work place, bulletins, or elsewhere — such as schools, offices and even churches.
“We’re designing 52 ads a year. We started in the New York Times and are hoping to run them in other major newspapers in the country.”
Awad admitted the campaign has hit a few snags: “We estimate it will cost $3.7 million,” but he said it was “the duty of every Muslim to explain Islam, and to explain who the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is.”
This, he hopes, will lead to more contributions.
The ad campaign was stopped during the Iraq war. People became tense and distracted during the war, he said, which is why they elected to put the campaign on hold.
Asked why they are placing ads in leading newspapers, when several ads could be placed in Midwest papers for the same price, Awad said tremendous damage was caused by the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, “so we have to start there.”
But is the campaign a successful tactic to win the hearts and minds of American citizens?
Alex Kronemer, a writer and film producer who produced the acclaimed video film “Muhammad, Legacy of a Prophet,” believes it’s a necessary step.
“It’s important to keep in mind that the images and information that we see as negative are because Islam is a minority religion in the US, and most people don’t know much about the religion except for what they see on the daily news.
“And, of course, news reports on what is strange, bad, and threatening — so if you’re in the situation where much of the information is of that nature, particularly after Sept. 11, and subsequently what’s going on in Afghanistan and Iraq, a lot of the news reporting on Islam has been bad.”
That negative information is what has formed people’s opinions, said Kronemer.
CAIR and other Muslim groups have worked with civil rights and educational groups, he said. “CAIR is basically trying to be pro-active.”
The ad campaign will cause people to talk about the issue, he said, “and try to understand what is going on, which ultimately will cause a deeper level of discourse. You can’t ever get there until there’s been some reply to the headlines.”
Asked why there hasn’t been outpouring of financial support from the Muslim American community for the campaign, Kronemer said: “I think their psyche has been deeply damaged. I believe there is a sense of being attacked, from without and within. As Muslims and Americans, they experienced the trauma of Sept. 11 and felt the fear of this event. The attack on America was also an attack on all of them.
“But also the response on the attack made many Muslim Americans feel defenseless, because of the broadside on their religion.”
The main problem, Kronemer said, is that writers and commentators are saying the problem isn’t the people, but their religion, and terrorists are acting according to Islam.
“When this happens it puts them in a very negative emotional place. They feel the threat coming from abroad and as a domestic threat. They don’t know who to trust, and what to do.
“Everyone in America is under great stress, but for Arab and Muslim Americans the response is to put their heads down. And this is not healthy for people as individuals and not healthy for our society.
“I believe the ad campaign is, form my point of view, not only good for Muslim Americans, but for all Americans — to help them make better judgments. To make the best decisions, we need to provide an accurate context.”
