Muslim group erects billboards designed to fight terrorism, Islamophobia

A billboard on Interstate 55 by the Association of Pakistani Americans of Bolingbrook urges Muslims to speak up if they see other Muslims engaging in suspicious activity. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

A suburban Chicago Muslim group hopes two giant billboards hanging over busy Chicago highways will help to fight terrorism while also combating Islamophobia.

The billboards — which read “Muslims to Muslims: See Something. Say Something. Save Innocent Lives” — went up Sunday, one over Interstate 290, the other over I-55. They were paid for by members of the Association of Pakistani Americans of Bolingbrook, a community group that over the last two decades has brought an annual Pakistan Day celebration, two cricket fields and a Pakistani-flag hoisting ceremony to the southwest suburb. Two billboards with the same message had hung in other locations around Chicago earlier this summer.

“We are trying to tell average Americans this is who we are, and we do not condone (terrorism),” said Talat Rashid, founder of the group, who also is a member of Bolingbrook’s Planning Commission and was the suburb’s 2003 Citizen of the Year. “If we see anyone in our community that is off track, we will let the authorities know.”

But some Chicago-area Muslim leaders question the approach, arguing that the billboards perpetuate hurtful misconceptions about Muslims.

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