ISIS is not us.
To project this message, a group of American Muslim professionals have launched a billboards campaign to shout out loud and clear that the terrorist organisation does not represent true Islam.
The first billboard they set up last week on northbound I-294 just west of Chicago reads: "Hey ISIS, you suck!!!" the Religion News Service reported.
The message is accompanied by a verse from the Quran that says, "Life is sacred." The large public display is signed with a social media hashtag, "From: #ActualMuslims."
Mohammad Siddiqi, executive director of Sound Vision, said a group of American-Muslim professionals raised funds for this campaign.
Leena Suleiman, the director of creative engagement at Sound Vision, told the local NBC television affiliate that the campaign was spurred by the frustration Muslim Americans feel each time a terrorist attack happens, sparking suspicion on every Muslim.
"It's about shouting out, 'ISIS does not represent me, I'm Muslim, I say the word 'sucks,' I'm like everyone else in my country,'" Suleiman said. "We want to scream it from a billboard.
"Obviously Muslims know that ISIS sucks, so the main audience is people who are not Muslims," Suleiman told NBC. "People who need to hear that Muslims are not OK with what ISIS is doing."
Speaking to Salon, Suleiman explained how Islamophobia and extremism both feed each other.
"Extremism, when done in the name of a religion, creates the image that the religion itself is perpetuating and encouraging violence against innocent people, although there is no such religion. This then produces a phobia against that religion, and in this zeitgeist, that religion happens to be Islam," she said.
"Islamophobia begets extremism and vice versa," Suleiman said. "On a local scale, when an Islamophobe starts otherising Muslims, this can make a Muslim feel unwelcome in his or her own country."
"On a global scale, Islamophobia gives fuel to and 'legitimises' the angst that extremist groups feel, which is converted into a violent ideology, however baseless and harmful," she added.
She said Sound Vision plans to expand the "ISIS sucks" campaign to other major cities.
Sound Vision is a non-profit organisation that "provides Muslims with thinking and talking points to manage crisis, to fight against Islamophobia and to challenge extremism and radicalism among Muslim youth."
The foundation has published several brochures and articles opposing what it calls "ISIS' anti-Islamic practices." In its "ISIS Sucks" campaign, it describes the self-proclaimed Islamic State as "the terrible terror to the world."
