The Seattle Chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) has announced that it is sponsoring ads to appear on the city’s buses during this year. According to the announcement :
The Seattle Chapter of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and its 877-WHY-ISLAM project are sponsoring ads to appear on the city’s metro transit buses around the month of Ramadan this year. During this month, Muslims from around the world fast and it usually leads to a high level of interest. Exterior ads are scheduled to appear on six metro buses and interior ones on 25 buses. About a thousand of these advertisements will also appear in New York City subway cars during the month of Ramadan. The mission of this project is to encourage people to search for unbiased information on Islam and to promote understanding and dialogue between people of different faiths.The ad design portrays a question (e.g. Islam?) in a visual format. Interested bystanders on the streets or passengers inside the buses can then visit www.whyislam.org or call 1-877-WHY-ISLAM to receive answers to any of their questions. The ad(s) can also be viewed at http://www.youdeservetoknow.org in high resolution. Due to the presence of much negativity and Islamophobia, the general public has the daunting task of sifting through uninformed and biased sources before they can find reliable outlets. We are providing an opportunity to anyone who has questions to have them answered by informed Muslims. Naeem Baig, Secretary General of ICNA said, “If someone has strong sentiments about Islam then they must have questions about the faith as well, and it’s all the more reason for them to obtain more information.”
A previous post reported that Siraj Wahajj, an American Islamic convert tied to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was behind a similar campaign in New York.
The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is a less well-known part of the Muslim Brotherhood network in the U.S., generally thought to be closely tied to the Jamaat-e-Islami organization of Southeast Asia, itself known to be allied with the Muslim Brotherhood. ICNA is particularly close to the Muslim American Society and the two organizations have been holding joint annual conventions for many years.