Magic Madrassa Bus
CAIR, that is. And one will recall that recent turns of events have brought to light CAIR’s legal “non-existence” as a “corporate entity” (which has brought up another interesting set of complications).
But the dawa must go on: “South Florida Muslims use bus ads, hotline to counter “Obsession” DVD campaign,” from the Miami New Times, December 11:
Remember when a copy of the DVD Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West — a film decried as Christian propaganda that seems to suggest Islam leads to terrorism — was included in a Sunday Herald? And we ripped the daily a new one for not initially explaining the controversial inclusion — and then later ran an ad for the DVD ourselves (oops, our bad)?
Well, South Floridian Muslims sure do. And the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has launched a campaign to counter the propaganda. Perhaps you’ve noticed buses in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with ads reading, “Islam. Got Questions? Get Answers.”
The listed number is for a hotline where experts on the religion answer any question a caller might have about Islam. CAIR has already run similar campaigns in Chicago and New York — the above photo is of a Chicago bus — and South Florida was chosen after Obsession was widely distributed here.
“You could say it’s a very humble response in regards to Obsession,” Altaf Ali, executive director of South Florida’s CAIR chapter, told us this morning. The producers of that DVD spent $100 million distributing it nationwide, he says, but CAIR has used only $60,000, the majority of it from South Floridian donors, plastering this region’s buses. “We thought there’s a lot of misconceptions about Islam. We wanted to create an avenue for our fellow Americans to learn the truth about our religion.”
You’ll want to read this next part sitting down:
The single most-asked question? “Does Islam promote violence?” says Ali. “And of course, we make emphatically clear that there is not a single sentence in the Koran that promotes killing of people.”
So much dissimulation depends on people not having read the Qur’an. Let’s have a look. And remember, these are translations by Muslims, promoted by other Muslims, not a gang of cheeky Islamophobes:
“Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” (9:5, translated by Pickthall)
“Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Qur’an: and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme.” (9:111, Yusufali)
“O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil).” (9:123, Pickthall)
“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.” (5:33, Yusufali)