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Chicago: US Muslims launched an advertising and social media
campaign in the hopes of reclaiming the word ‘Jihad’ from
extremists, who insist on equating the spiritual quest with
terrorism.
The campaign features Muslims describing their personal struggles
-- the meaning of Jihad -- on bus ads, Twitter, Facebook and a
dedicated website: myjihad.org.
“MyJihad is to build friendships
across the aisle,” says one ad showing an African American man
leaning on the shoulder of a Jewish friend, according to an AFP
report.
"MyJihad is to march on despite losing my son," says
another ad, featuring a portrait of a mother with her three
remaining children.
“MyJihad is to not judge people by their
cover,” says a third, framed by two women in headscarves.
It was sparked by a series of hateful ads calling Muslims
“savages” and urging people to “defeat jihad” that were plastered
on buses and trains in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
But it
also speaks to a larger frustration among “mainstream” Muslims
with how a basic tenant of their faith has been distorted and
demonized, said Ahmed Rehab who helped launch the campaign.
“Jihad
is a term that has unfortunately been widely misrepresented by the
actions of Muslim extremists first and foremost, and by attempts
at public indoctrination coming from Islamophobes who claim that
the minority extremists are right and the majority of Muslims are
wrong,” said Rehab, who is the executive director of the Chicago
branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“The MyJihad campaign is about reclaiming Jihad from the Muslim
and anti-Muslim extremists who ironically, but not surprisingly,
see eye to eye on Jihad.”
The ads have been placed on buses in
Chicago and Rehab hopes to raise funds to expand the campaign to
buses and trains in New York, Washington, San Francisco, Seattle,
Houston, Dallas, Cleveland and Oklahoma City. Organizers are also
working to get the ads on buses in Toronto, London, Manchester,
Sydney and Melbourne.
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