For a long time, Americans have insisted that the Muslim community should be condemning the terrorists if they truly do not agree with their methods. But all across the country billboards are being erected that Muslims are using to show that they are not terrorists. They contain wording that leaves no doubt what their feelings are.
Tariq Malik, 60, said Muslims are trying to stop people from conflating the terrorist group with Islam. The billboard quotes a passage of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, that Malik and his peers interpreted to mean, “Life is sacred.”
Malik said he and his peers also want to halt a perception that Muslims aren’t speaking up enough against ISIS.
“These acts are being done in the name of religion, which really has nothing to do with the religion,” Malik said, speaking of terrorism. “It just has to do with radical people taking on their own agenda and hijacking the name of Islam.”
This St. Louis billboard was the work of community members like Malik and the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, he said.