MyPeace Islamic group is promoting Islam as a religion of peace, with a new television commercial comparing it to Christianity.
In a noble campaign to “hijack Islam back and show you what Islam is really about”, Muslim organisation MyPeace are attempting to repair the badly battered image their religion has received over the past decade, by airing a commercial promoting Islam at primetime.
While a very public jihad between Western forces and extremist terror groups such as al Qaeda, Hezbollah and dozens of others have all but unwound the position of Islam as a peaceful and attractive religion to join, MyPeace denounces these organisations and hopes to win hearts and minds back with their television commercials.
Gaining notoriety earlier in the year with their giant Sydney billboards proclaiming “Jesus is a prophet of Islam”, this latest ad promotes “values that our holy book, the holy Quran, teaches us to live by and they are values that any common, basic human should live by.”
The commercial, believed to be the first to promote Islam on national television during primetime, features several excerpts from the Koran to show that Muslims share similar values to Christians.
The commercial will screen for the next six weeks, and has been fully funded by private donors from Australia.
http://video.news.com.au/embed/2158567028/First-primetime-TV-ad-for-Islam?player=narrow
“It will interesting to see how it will be received,” comments a Catholic Bishop.
“I think the feedback will be one of surprise but very welcoming at the same time.”
The intended result seems to be to repair a very damaged brand in Islam, and perhaps start to win over new followers to Islam who wish to live by peaceful values. Now that’s not such a bad idea. The worst that can happen is that it annoys people – especially atheists and those who don’t want to see religion shoved down their face. Clearly though, a religion is as much a brand as Coke or Apple or BP, and thus requires sustained, sensitive marketing to repair a damaged brand. The best result of a “favourable” Islam would be that peaceful followers dilute the extremists. Another intended result would be to simply put the minds of the general population to rest, decreasing suspicion towards Muslims in public places and in your neighbourhood.
MyPeace Facebook Page Comments - Islam a religion of Peace advertisement
MyPeace’s Facebook page can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/mypeaceislam
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“Clearly though, a religion is as much a brand as Coke or Apple or BP, and thus requires sustained, sensitive marketing to repair a damaged brand.”
Curiously enough, atheists are investing lots of effort into salvaging their brand (atheism) after centuries of ridicule, slander and libel from both Christianity and Islam (not mention many other religions). Early attempts like calling themselves “agnostics” or “brights” backfired though because as dirty as the term “atheist” is to many people’s ears, atheists choose to call themselves atheists rather than agnostics or brights because it means so much to them as part of their identity. Despite the horrible things many people say about atheists, the people who call themselves atheists are fundamentally proud to be atheists.
If some Muslims feel the need to repair their brand name I can’t help but think, is this because they feel ashamed to be Muslims? If atheists don’t care about the dirty words being thrown at them because they still feel proud of who they are, maybe Muslims should spend their time worrying about why it shames them rather than trying to convince people it’s ok to be Muslim? Or do atheists simply have more faith in themselves?
As for comparing the Koran to the Bible: Islam is not that simple. The Sira, the Haddiths and countless other texts need to be considered when comparing Islam and Christianity.
All in all, it is progress, MyPeace clearly on some level acknowledge Islam has a problem existing in the modern world and are busy adapting their religion to survive in a peace loving culture. Just as Christianity was adapted to survive separation from the state and the intellectual objections of science.
The Bible, the Quran and the Torah are full of violence and passages that encourage waging war on unbelievers, but really though, that’s more or less irrelevant when it comes to how religions are practiced. The texts are really only a narrow part of how any given church or congregation worships. By and large, Christian denominations choose to ignore the more bloodthirsty passages in their religion and emphasize instead the concepts of charity, tolerance and brotherly love. However, large sections of the Muslim community have become increasingly militant. Their quest for religious purity demands they wage holy war. The phenomenon began in poor middle eastern countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, but time and time again it has taken root in first world countries. The London bombers were middle class, educated Englishmen.There are many law abiding, peaceful Muslims, but we cannot for a second pretend that other parts of the Islamic community don’t represent a clear and dangerous threat to western way of life. There’s only one religion rioting and killing people when an offensive cartoon gets published.
I think what strikes me most about Islam is the reluctance to condemn a believer before an infidel, an evil believer is better than a good non-believer. I hope that this change of tone corrects the prejudices that have developed both in Muslims and non Muslims.
Yes Christianity is about peace, and so is Islam. Didn’t the Bible say Jesus was the Son of God remember where not in polarity here we are equal in our poles, and so it was prophesied. The Bible in particular for me in the old testament, although stated by Edgar Cayce, it is not interely chronological it is non the less a history of a particular race a peoples. Now then Islam I am interested in reading more about for it seems more than a history book , has scientific and social data in it defianately worthy of more examination. I am open to all Religions, and look for the deeper value of the word in contemplation!