Bus riders may have spotted ads for Islam popping up on their Metro route in recent weeks. You read that correctly: ads for Islam. With simple design, they say, "Q: Islam? A: You Deserve To Know"; according to the Seattle Times, the ads are sponsored by ten local Muslims who want to pique your curiosity about their religion and jumpstart public dialogue. It's part of the Why Islam campaign, a national push which has an informative multimedia website with both basic information about Islam (what is the Quran?) as well as entire sections on the Muslim take on in-depth issues like modern science, gender, and the environment.

Before we get to the meat of the conversation about the ads, here's the dialogue at Seattlest HQ sparked by the possiblity of writing about the potentially controversial advertisements:

Katelyn: Ads about Islam? Good Allah!
Charles: Or as we Jews say, oy vey.
Abbey: And as we Danes say--just don't use a cartoon!
Kim: As we German-Irish say, pass the beer!
Ronald: What would the French say? Quoi de phoque? Perhaps. (What, a seal?)
Katelyn: I want you all to know that I take this issue very seriously, and as such I will be quoting all of you in my story.

Seriously though... after the jump.
"49" by Seattlest Flickr Contributor TimWillis.

We do take this issue seriously, and we want to take the opportunity to resoundingly affirm the principle behind these ads. This September 11th, Seattlest spent some time remembering how frustrating it was to try to talk our more reactionary Midwestern classmates down from their "Nuke all the Islamics now!" stance after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. (Note #1: "Islamics" is not the proper term to use here. Note #2: Said classmates were also prone to using far more ignorant and infinitely less tasteful terms which we will not be repeating here.) There's a lot of ignorance floating around the world, and while ignorance can mean bliss, it can also mean the perpetuation of hatred.

It's our experience that most people in our culture feel uncomfortable talking openly about Islam. Maybe that's because they just don't know very much about it (and no one likes to look stupid, especially when it's with regards to one of the world's largest religions). That's why informative sites like Why-Islam and--perhaps to a greater extent--sites like ReligiousTolerance.org are so valuable. They are resources for people who have questions about doctrine or culture, need details, and want to approach the research process in a spirit of respect about the subject. The more information, the better. If staring at an ad on Metro serves to spark someone's curiosity, we say: that's great!