OKLAHOMA – A leading American Muslim civil rights group has praised an Oklahoma library chain for using a picture of a Muslim woman in its advertisement, urging public to send a note of appreciation to the library for promoting positive image of Muslim women.
“There are a total of 20 different images that demonstrate young people and older people, people of different cultures and races,” executive director of Pioneer Library Systems Ann Masters told NewsOK.com.
“Each image is unique and different. What they have in common is that they all have either a book or an iPad or something seen to be the use of a service of the library. Each vehicle has the words ‘Good Things Coming My Way.'”
“What we were trying to express through those words and those images was that regardless of age or gender or race or nationality or disability or other cultural connections, the library welcomes people with each of these ties to the community.
“We didn’t intend to promote any religious belief and we don’t think we did. We don’t view the image as an endorsement or disapproval of any religious belief.”
CAIR has called on people in the state, of all faiths, to celebrate the fact that the Pioneer Library System is making an effort to represent the diversity of Oklahoma.
Along with urging people to share the library’s diversity ad, CAIR officials also called American Muslims to contact Masters and the library’s administrative offices to thank them for promoting a positive image of Islam.
CAIR statement came after Chad Grensky, a local from the town of Norman, accused the public libraries of “funding and promoting Islam” on Facebook.
“We aren’t allowed to display a cross but on the vehicles provided by the state of Oklahoma we can promote Islam / Muslims with tax payers [sic] money,” the former field investigator for the US Department of Defense wrote.
“Where are the Christians, Jews, Catholics etc. No, we the tax payers are funding and promoting Islam.”
He added that he was sure that the director of the library, Ann Masters, had made a “mistake”.
“Being the director of a library you’d think she’d know the definition of equality,” he wrote.
Unfounded
Adam Soltani, executive director of the CAIR Oklahoma chapter, told The Independent that the complaint was “unfounded”.
“The more I did research, I saw his [Facebook] posts which were Islamophobic in nature and hateful to Islam and Muslims in general,” he said.
“He has his own agenda and is approaching the image from a divisive and hateful standpoint. This is just one of about 20 images that the library system is using to promote a diverse culture and we should celebrate that rather than condemn it.”
Masters, the executive director of Pioneer Library Systems, said the images on each vehicle were unique and showed people of different ages, cultures and races, but what they had in common was reading.
She told The Independent that the purpose of the picture was to show people of different cultures, not different religions, and she said she was “concerned” that some people perceived that differently.
“The picture we used of the person in the hijab is just a woman,” she said.
“If I saw her in the workplace or when I was shopping, I would think that was what she chose to wear and not that she was “promoting” religion.”
She added that the library’s lawyer confirmed they were not violating the first amendment by showing the picture on their car.
“We want to be welcoming to everyone and we try to be inclusive in every way,” she said.
A CAIR survey earlier this year found Islamophobia was the most important issue for Muslim voters.
CAIR recently launched the satirical public awareness campaign with the distribution of ISLAMOPHOBIN, described on its packaging as “Multi-Symptom Relief for Chronic Islamophobia,” and the release of a faux television commercial for the product.
According to CAIR, ISLAMOPHOBIN is actually sugar-free-chewing gum.