Britain’s largest Islamic charity says it wants to “break down barriers” and portray Islam positively by launching a new advertising campaign which will slap the phrase “glory to Allah” on the side of London buses.
The new campaign by Islamic Relief is, ostensibly, targeted at raising donations for their Ramadan aid to Syria, but is attracting attention for the “hundreds” of buses which will be decorated with the phrase “Subhan’Allah”, or ‘Glory to Allah’.
Muslims reading the advert are told that to “gather the rewards of Ramadan”, they must to donate to Islamic Relief, an organisation which had its accounts with banking giant HSBC closed after “concerns that cash for aid could end up with terrorist groups abroad”.
Public transport has been chosen for the Islamic re-branding in London, Manchester, Leicester, Birmingham, and Bradford – all UK locations with high and growing Muslim populations, reports the Sunday Times.
That the announcement of the new campaign came the day after London crowned its first Muslim leader, Mayor Sadiq Khan. Islamic Relief called it a “nice irony” that the two events coincided.
Imran Madden, a British convert to Islam and director of Islamic Relief’s United Kingdom Branch said: “There is a lot of negativity around Muslims at the moment involving things such as counterterrorism issues. “We want to change for the better the perception of Islam. The bus campaign is about breaking down barriers and challenging misconceptions”. (Read More)
