One Nation
Four years after 9/11, anti-Muslim hate crimes and negative perceptions of Islam remained high. Something had to be done.
An Accurate Reflection of the American Muslim Community
The Challenge: Four years after 9/11, negative public perception of Islam among Americans remained high; anti-Muslim bias crimes rose by more than 50 percent between 2003 to 2004, according to a report by The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Anti-Muslim sentiment was being fanned by media personalities and web sites that propagated hate, but the voices of American Muslims were not emerging as a powerful counter-force.
Our Approach: In 2005, a group of philanthropists and American Muslim leaders came together to take action against this worrying trend. Fenton came on board to lead communications for a multi-year initiative, which we branded “One Nation.” Our goal was to improve public understanding of the American Muslim community, promote pluralism, and inject the points of view of American Muslims into the national conversation.
We trained more than 100 American Muslim groups and leaders on core perceptual “frames,” including diversity, civic engagement, and patriotism, to combat negative stereotypes, created an online resource for journalists seeking story ideas and experts on these issues, hosted a day-long seminar at the Religious Newswriters Association’s annual conference to encourage accurate reporting, and ran a media “war room” to react swiftly to breaking news and to promote representative stories about the American Muslim community.
Progress, Accelerated: Four years into the initiative, there was promising evidence of its impact. Research by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life found that the number of Americans who associate Islam with violence has declined, with a plurality (45%) who says Islam is no more likely than other faiths to encourage violence among its believers. Another important perceptual milestone: 60% of Americans surveyed report recognizing that Muslims face discrimination.
