By Ed Diokno
Three signs tell three different stories, but together they make a sad statement about the state our country.
The first sign is located in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with the highest concentration of Muslim Americans according to the U.S. Census. The message is in Arabic script, white letters with a black background.
Scary?
Well, put those fears away, my friends. Translated into English, the billboard says, “Donald Trump Can’t Read This but It Scares Him, Anyway.”
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It was put up by the Nuisance Committee, a political action committee founded by Max Temkin, founder of the game “Cards Against Humanity.” The sign directs people to a website that tracks Trump’s major statements about Muslims and Muslim Americans from the beginning of his campaign through present.
“It’s tongue-in-cheek with a serious message behind the comedy,” said Kitty Kurth, spokeswoman for the Nuisance Committee,
The billboard was placed near Dearborn because of its large Arab American population, according to the committee. The Republican presidential nominee has come under fire for his comments regarding Muslims. Another reason is that Michigan is a key swing state.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Detroit News he sees the humor in the Dearborn billboard.
“I chuckled,” said Walid, recalling the first time he saw it. “I laughed. Duh. This is how people feel in the community. It’s mocking Trump. It’s funny yet very appropriate considering the nonsense Donald Trump has continued to say about Muslims.”
The committee hopes the billboard — along with two others in Illinois and Florida — helps persuade swing-state voters who are turned off by Trump’s “racism and xenophobia” to mobilize against him.
“Throughout our history as a nation, we have been built into a strong nation by the contribution of immigrants, but at the same time, many of our people have had fear of the other and fear of the unknown,” Kurth said.
The scariest sign
The third sign is fake
In this case, the “Advancement of Islamic Agenda for America” sign is clearly an altered version of the Church Sign Maker’s “Classic Design #9” offering (as indicated by the identical nature of the two signs’ sizes, shapes, and background objects in their photos):This photograph of an outdoor sign has been identified in social media postings as belonging to a mosque (or some other Islam-associated administrative building) with the cumbersome title of “Advancement of Islamic Agenda for America.” The sign advertises to viewers that organization’s ominous threat “AMERICA WE WILL KILL YOU ALL AND NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP IT,” bracketed by invocations of the exaltation “ALLAH BE PRAISED.”