Fighting hatred with advertising

The hardcore, wingnut Islamophobes won’t be affected by this at all. They’ve decided to be terrified of Muslims, because they need their terror to feed their hate. And they want the rest of us to be terrified so that we will hate along with them. Hatred, it seems, breeds the need to spawn more hatred.

But for those who are teetering on the edge of hatefulness, perhaps there is hope — if only they can be made to see the foolishness and uselessness of hate:

Ads hope to dispel fears of Muslims

RICHMOND, Va. – The small beige signs bearing swirling, black Arabic script appear all over town on buses and at colleges.

One panicked bus rider wondered if they were secret messages from terrorists. Should the FBI be contacted? What do they mean?

Actual translation: “Paper or plastic?”

The signs are part of a campaign by the Virginia Interfaith Center, aimed at dispelling some of the public’s fears about the Muslim community. Organizers hope to eventually expand the program statewide.

“As soon as people see Arabic, they immediately make an association with terrorism,” said the Rev. C. Douglas Smith, executive director of the interfaith center. “That’s probably because since 9/11, not only is fear overwhelming us, but that’s how we’re being trained to think.”

…

Besides the “paper or plastic” sign, there are two others — one which is the Arabic version of the “I’m a little tea pot” rhyme and the other roughly translating to the English equivalent of “rock, paper, scissors.” Accompanying the translations at the bottom of the posters are comments such as, “Misunderstanding can make anything scary,” and “What did you think it said?”

…

Bias against the Muslim community is a continuing problem across the country, said Imad Damaj, president of the Virginia Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs.

“There’s so many lazy, unexamined assumptions about all of us and how we react to people,” Damaj said. “We need to challenge ourselves.”

Find out more about the campaign, “A More Perfect Union”, and consider sponsoring it in your own community. This country was not founded in hatred. We must not allow it to be destroyed by hatred.