SOUTHFIELD — In a news conference Sep. 1, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) discussed its public service announcement (PSA) campaign launch at its headquarters. The campaign is designed to commemorate the upcoming anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and fight  stereotypes surrounding Islam that have heated up recently as a result of the controversy surrounding a mosque and community center being built near Ground Zero.

“The vitriol and physical attacks on the American Muslim community and Islam require a positive, proactive response that will help counter the almost hysterical campaign of misinformation by a vocal group of Islamophobes. These public service announcements have the potential to reach millions of Americans with a message of religious inclusion and cooperation,” CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid said.

All three PSAs will air on TV stations around the nation. Two feature Muslim first responders to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and have the theme, “9/11 happened to us all.”

“What happened on 9/11 was a tragedy for all Americans, and Muslims suffered during that tragedy. Muslims died during that tragedy, and also, Muslims were there as first responders. The series of PSAs put out information about those Muslim first responders people don’t really know about. A connection has been drawn between the religion of Islam and the 1.5 or so billion Muslims and what happened on the event of 9/11, but really there is no connection, and our press conference wanted to demonstrate that,” CAIR-MI Outreach Coordinator Raheem Hanifa said.

The third PSA features Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders encouraging people to treat others the way they want to be treated, and ends with the phrase, “We have more in common than we think.”

Representative Victor Ghalib Begg from the Council on Islamic Organizations in Michigan and Abdullah El-Amin of the Muslim Center in Detroit spoke alongside Walid at the news conference.  CAIR announced it would join other organizations in Acts of Kindness Detroit: A Weekend of Remembrance and Restoration on Saturday, Sep. 11 and Sunday, Sep. 12. During the weekend, interfaith organizations will commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 by participating in a series of services to the city ranging from restoring a mural at the Boys and Girls Club to clean-up projects.

“We feel it’s important to do our part and commemorate that day with service, and to counter a lot of the negative propaganda that has been going on across the nation marginalizing Muslims and demonizing Muslims. We feel that community service is a great way to counter the negativity. Muslims are Americans like everybody else, and we’re doing our part. We suffered on that day as well,” Hanifa said.