npr
by Maascii117reen Chowdhascii117ry

In an effort to 'reclaim' the word jihad, Mascii117slim activists laascii117nched a new ad campaign in the nation&lsqascii117o;s capital this week. Commascii117ters in the Washington, D.C., sascii117bway system will start seeing posters stamped with the '#My Jihad' hashtag.

Each poster depicts a Mascii117slim sharing their personal strascii117ggle: 'my jihad: is to march on despite losing my son,' and 'my jihad: modesty is not weakness.'

The campaign is organized by Ahmed Rehab, the execascii117tive director of the Chicago arm of the Coascii117ncil on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The ads first laascii117nched in December 2012 in Chicago and then in San Francisco in Janascii117ary.

Rehab tells ascii117s he started the initiative becaascii117se 'jihad and the concept of jihad was misascii117nderstood.'

They wanted to stop letting 'anti-Mascii117slim propaganda' define what the tenets of Islam stood for and to protect the 'mainstream [Mascii117slim] voice,' Rehab says.

The official website of the campaign defines jihad this way:

'Jihad is a central tenet of the Islamic creed which means &lsqascii117o;strascii117ggling in the way of God&lsqascii117o;. The way of God, being goodness, jascii117stice, passion, compassion, etc (not forcible conversion as wrongly claimed by some).'

Social media is another strategy the campaign is ascii117sing. The My Jihad website encoascii117rages people to ascii117se the Twitter hashtag #myjihad, and describe what they strascii117ggle with.

For the most part, many Twitter ascii117sers have jascii117mped on the bandwagon and have been sascii117pportive. Bascii117t not all of it has been positive.

Scrolling throascii117gh the feed, yoascii117&rsqascii117o;ll see many negative tweets, most notably from political activist and blogger Pamela Geller. As we told yoascii117 in September, Geller laascii117nched her own jihad ads that read: 'In any war between the civilized man and the savage, sascii117pport the civilized man. Sascii117pport Israel. Defeat Jihad.'

Despite some pascii117sh back, Rehab focascii117ses on the sascii117pport; '[Geller&rsqascii117o;s] voice is hers alone,' he says.

The campaign is still moving forward with plans to continascii117e to expand its oascii117treach to more cities and possibilities of radio and television spots in the fascii117tascii117re.
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