Date: July 14th 2010

Interreligious Response to Ad Campaign

[Apologies if you have received multiple copies of this message; we are trying for the widest distribution of the notice. Feel free to share this information with colleagues and friends.]

We have received reports that a nationwide anti-Islam campaign has reached the Bay Area in the form of advertisements posted on transit buses on the Peninsula. There is a possibility that similar ads might appear elsewhere in the Bay Area.

In response, several interfaith leaders from PACT and other interfaith organizations in the area have drafted the attached letter to be sent to the Public Affairs office at SamTrans.

We invite you as someone involved in working for harmonious interreligious relationships in our community to consider adding your name to the letter.

If you will send your name and organizational affiliation (identification only) to me at revdak@interfaithspace.org, I will see that you are included among the supporters.

For more information about the ad campaign and the people behind it, you can find articles about it at NY Daily News and Associated Press (these are the articles mentioned in the letter.

This is not an issue of religious liberty. The ads are clearly crafted to convey a misunderstanding of Islam and Muslims, and cannot help but heighten an atmosphere of mistrust and hostility. This is not the kind of community that we have worked together to build.

Thanks for your consideration.

Rev. D. Andrew Kille
Director, Interfaith Space