I always like to start with some Good News but this time it's a bit different and I can't really call it Good News so instead I'm going to call it News to Make You Smile.
A Muslim-American non-profit organization called The Sound Vision Foundation aims to, in its words, "provide Muslims with thinking and talking points to manage crisis, fight against Islamophobia, and challenge extremism and radicalism among Muslim youth." It has started a campaign in response to the on-going Islamophobic bull that Muslims have been "silent" about Daesh, that is, ISIS, an accusation with the implication that such "silence" means tacit support.
So if you're driving down the highway in Chicago, you may come across this: a giant billboard reading "Hey ISIS, you suck!!! From: #ActualMuslims."
The billboard is part of an "ISIS Sucks" campaign the organization has launched.While this really did make me smile, I can't call it Good News because of the Islamaphobia which made it necessary. Leena Suleiman, the director of creative engagement at Sound Vision, said the campaign was begun "in light of the constant pressure on American Muslims to condemn ISIS," a condemnation, I note, that would never be loud enough or long enough to satisfy the bigots. She also called the billboard "an expression of real human frustration at trying to live peacefully while being associated with a menace that wreaks havoc on mostly other Muslims."
Which is true: The vast majority of the victims of ISIS are themselves Muslim. And most of those fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria are also Muslim. So while the billboard did make me smile, it shouldn't have been necessary to say.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/05/muslim-americans-launch-isis-sucks-billboard-campaign-so-called-islamic-state-does-not-represent-islam/
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