[View the story "Fighting Islamophobia with #MyJihad" on Storify ]Fighting Islamophobia with #MyJihad American Muslims use social media to take back the word. Storified by The Stream · Fri, Dec 14 2012 11:31:31
MyJihad Ad Campaign Now on Chicago Busesmyjihadtv
My Jihad's
Facebook page calls for "taking back Jihad, one hashtag at a time, from anti-Muslim and Muslim extremists". From the website:
MyJihad is a public education campaign that seeks to share the proper meaning of Jihad as believed and practiced by the majority of Muslims. Jihad means "struggling in the way of God". The way of God, being goodness, justice, passion, compassion, etc. It is putting up the good fight against whatever odds or barriers you face in your life.#MyJihad: Reclaiming Islam
The ads range from religious interpretations to personal battles, reflecting the wide range of meanings of "jihad", which literally means "struggle".
Myjihad
Out and about with Saleha and look what we found! Yay!! <3 #MyJihad campaign!mkuentz2010
Muslims and non-Muslims alike wrote personal "My Jihad" posts on Twitter and Facebook.
My Jihad to is to volunteer for this inspiring campaign with all sincerity from the heart and not from a place of reaction to others or anger. Even the most sincere Muslims can misinterpret Islam on their spiritual journeys. Non-Muslims certainly are not going to define my Islamic faith for me.#MyJihad - Public Education Campaign
#MyJihad is praying for you even when you may be praying against me.Sarah Sun
My Jihad, as a proud Jewish American, is to support this peaceful campaign to eradicate fear, hatred, misinformation and negative stereotyping through a message of tolerance, education, and compassion.
Others were more sceptical.
New definition of "jihad" = "concerted effort with the purpose of getting to a better place". Right. http://is.gd/CbyaDE #tcot #islamPuterPrsn
Civilian Jihad at its best: "Jihad means ‘getting to a better place’ says CAIR" http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/14/jihad-is-getting-to-a-better-place-says-cair-campaign/ Jihad IS Islams' Holy War. #tcot #ccotFren
The "My Jihad" bus ads follow a series of anti-Islamic advertisements that have appeared on public transportation around the United States.
Stream Leads 25/09/12 - Anti-Islamic subway ads, app for Einstein's brain, Kuwait's new ID cardsajstream
Earlier this year, the American Freedom Defense Initiative spearheaded an inflammatory advertising campaign to "
defeat jihad ", which characterised opponents of Israel as "savage". Those advertisements appeared in a limited number of New York subway stations and were
widely defaced soon after their placement. AFDI co-founder Pamela Geller, a blogger known for her confrontational criticisms of Islam, called My Jihad a "contemptuous propaganda campaign" in a
blog post describing AFDI's next anti-Islam advertising campaign, shown below.
Planned MTA subway adAJstream
The ads will be AFDI's largest advertising buy to date, and will appear next to over 200 clocks in New York City subway stations for the month of January. Geller wrote in her blog post that the ads would be much harder to deface because the clocks hang from the ceiling of the stations, as she illustrated with this preview of the ads:
Typepad
Twitter reactions to the My Jihad ads praised the positive message contrasting them with Geller's ads.
#America: New positive Ads on buses in #Chicago & soon in other US cities; much better than Geller's Ads #Islam #Jihad http://pic.twitter.com/jf9DotufBayan
American Muslims found an original way to fight Islamophobia http://myjihad.org/tania
PHOTO: NYC's Next Islamophobic Subway Ad http://huff.to/XixN3c While it is free speech, couldn't the #MTA refuse to sell ad space to Geller?MaryMacElveen
