Hawzah News Agency-The billboards, the first of which went up in Chicago on Aug. 5, read “Hey ISIS, You Suck!!!” and are accompanied by a small Quran verse “Life is Sacred.” Each billboard is signed with the social media hash tag “Actual Muslims.”

The initiative is the brainchild of a group of Muslims who approached Sound Vision, a 28-year-old PR and media communication firm based in Chicago. Sound Vision works on issues affecting the Muslim community. Its founder and president, Abdul Malik Mujahid, said the company has been working for two years on campaigns to combat stereotypes about Muslim Americans and Islam. They distribute brochures to explain that the Islam practiced by ISIS terrorists is not the same religion taught by Prophet Mohammed (a.s).

The cost of putting up the billboards varied, depending upon the city. The funds for erecting them were raised by Muslims in each community, who pooled their resources through donation drives. In Chicago, for example, it cost $2,500 to erect the billboard; in Arizona it was $4,000 and in Miami it was $5,000. The group plans to erect more billboards across the nation, including in Times Square in New York, where the cost could run as much as $25,000. The group is using a crowd funding platform for this purpose and has raised nearly $15,000 so far.

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