My Faith, My Voice Campaign Speaks Out

Discrimination and hate crimes persist all over the world, even in countries that pride themselves on democracy. Recently coming to light in the United States is the hate campaign of Muslims due to the plans to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York city. An uproar of protests continue near the building site, fueling American Muslims' decision to speak out.



The group, labeled My Faith, My Voice is an non-affiliated organization aimed to dissolve stereotypes linked to the Islamic faith and educate the American public about previous misconceptions. Not only are they visiting the ground zero site to protest the hate campaign, they have decided to both digitally and on television, create an educational campaign to promote understanding and tolerance.

The campaign highlights the peaceful nature of the Islamic faith and individual American Muslims who follow the Quran. The Youtube video channel linked to this campaign allows individuals to create videos from their own computers, telling their own stories of following Islam. This personal approach reaches out to the hearts of the American public and asks for empathy and compassion.

This year is especially conflicting as the Muslim fasting practice, Ramadan will come to an end on September, 11th, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers in New York. Muslims all over the United States have decided to respectfually celebrate the end of this holy month on the 10th of September to avoid an uproar of protest groups. Despite the efforts of Muslims to avoid confrontation many conservative Americans continue to organize discriminatory practices, such as "International Burn a Quran Day."

Americans seem to misunderstand themselves, in this regard. These conservative Christians supposedly preach peace and understanding of others yet they hold discrimatory events to destroy the sacred word of another religion? Maybe the efforts and funding for this hate campaign could be used as well as "My Faith, My Voice" to educate and inform the public of their own practices. The discrepancy is obvious: those who preach understanding should practice understanding and tolerance.

The "My Faith, My Voice" campaign should be an example to all for how to fight discrimination with education and peace. It may not reach and change the mind of every American bigot but the word is getting out and will most likely have an affect on the hearts and minds of many non-Muslims living the US.