American Muslims Launch PSA To Counter Anti-Islam Sentiment

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - A grassroots group of Muslims concerned about anti-Muslim sentiment released a public service announcement and online campaign Monday titled "My Faith My Voice."

The 60-second video features American Muslims of different ages and backgrounds addressing fears Americans may have about Islam and Muslims.

Part of the script, included in a press release from the group, reads: "In recent weeks, a lot of people have been telling you what to think about Muslims. They say you should fear me ’ But the truth is I don't want to impose my faith on you ’ Islam teaches me to respect all people ’ I am an American. I am Muslim. This is My Faith. This is My Voice."

Speakers in the video also say, "I don't want to take over this country ’ And I don't support terrorism in any form."

The full PSA can be found at www.MyFaithMyVoice.com .

"We often hear from fear-mongers that Muslims are trying to take over America or that they are trying to impose their faith on others, but this is simply not true," said David Hawa, producer of the PSA. "This PSA is our humble and sincere effort to ease people's concerns that this is not who we are or what we are about."

The announcement coincides with a group of religious leaders who met at interfaith news conference in Washington, D.C. Responding to rising anti-Muslim rhetoric interfaith leaders gathered to help promote better understanding and unity, MyFox DC reported.

Along with the controversy surrounding the proposed mosque near ground zero, there have been recent incidents of anti-Muslim sentiment including the slashing of a Muslim cab driver in New York City and the torching of construction trucks at a planned Islamic site in Tennessee.

"I haven't felt that way since after 9/11," said Nadia El-Khatib, an American Muslim and participant in the video who told MyFox DC that her faith is making her feel like a target lately.

"A group was just driving by me and threw out some words and spend on," she said.

The Washington Post reported that Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said at the interfaith news conference that not enough has been done to promote greater dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims.

"Definitely there is the need for an American Muslim narrative," he said. "The story of what mainstream American Muslims stand for has not been told effectively. We as Muslim Americans need to do a lot of changing and soul-searching."

AOL's Politics Daily blog said that Hawa, 37, and his friends came up with the idea on Aug. 24 and filmed about three dozen people out of 100 who came to a casting call a few days later.

Politics Daily quoted Hawa as saying the video is not attached to any Islamic group or other advocacy organization because "then there would be an agenda." He said neither he nor the video's speakers take any position on the Islamic center, Park51, proposed to be placed near Ground Zero.

"It seems that in the Park51 controversy, a lot of people are speaking on our behalf, but Muslims themselves haven't been heard," he said about why he wanted to "give Muslims a soapbox."

Mediaite blogger Jon Bershad said it was depressing that, in 2010, practitioners of the second largest religion in the world had to shoot a video "where they seriously and without irony promise not to take over the country ’ ."

He also took a poke at the video itself, saying it "succeeds in making them seem less like terrorists but accidentally makes them look like the aliens from the remake of V."