As Muslims it is our duty to defend the honor of Prophet Muhammad (May Peace be Upon Him) when his honor is violated. It pains me to have to inform many of you that in Saint Louis, over 100 anti-Islam propaganda billboards with cartoon drawings of the Prophet Muhammad (May Peace be Upon Him) have gone up in our community. These billboards are financed by the well-known anti-Islam hate group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled as a hate group.
As a community and Muslims, we do not fight fire with fire, we must respond with wisdom and understanding. As Allah (SWT) reminds us in the Quran,
“And not equal are the good deed and the bad. Repel [evil] by that [deed] which is better; and thereupon the one whom between you and him is enmity [will become] as though he was a devoted friend.”
CAIR-STL took the lead and organized a unity meeting with all the various Imams and Masjids in Saint Louis to discuss our response. After the meeting the united community decided to respond to these hate propaganda ads by running our own truthful positive ads to educate and defend the honor of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (May Peace be Upon Him). We will first hold an open competition to get the best design to defend the honor of Prophet Muhammad (May Peace be Upon Him). The winner of the competition will win a $1,000 prize and will have their design go up on billboards across the city.
This Ramadan you have the opportunity to defend the honor of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (May Peace be Upon Him) in your own community. Our goal is to raise $20,000 to be used to fund local billboards to counter AFDI’s 100 anti-Islam propaganda ads.
Go online and donate at www.cair-stl.org/give, or mail a check to 8945 Dunn Rd, Suite 100, Hazelwood MO, 63042. If you are interested in entering into the competition simply visit www.cair-stl.org and click on “defend the honor of Muhammad” tab on the right of the page.