'Praise Allah' bus adverts to appear on U.K. buses

Chiqui Guyjoco Thursday, May 12, 2016

Smoke rises after an airstrike in the rebel held area of old Aleppo, Syria April 18, 2016. | Reuters/Abdalrhman Ismail

Bus adverts carrying the Arabic phrase "Subdah Allah" that translates as "Glory be to God" will be appearing on London's iconic red buses and other British public transport during the month-long Ramadan beginning June 6 until July 7. The ad campaign is funded by the Muslim charity Islamic Relief to encourage British Muslims to support victims of the Syrian Civil War.

According to The Sunday Times, the ad campaign will be rolled out in largely Muslim communities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, and Bradford. Islamic Relief is known to have helped millions of people since it was founded in 1984 and hopes that this ad campaign will help paint a positive picture of Islam.

"In a sense this could be called a climate change campaign because we want to change the negative climate around international aid and around the Muslim community in this country," Imran Madden, U.K. director of Islamic Relief said in a statement. "International aid has helped halve the number of people living in extreme poverty in the past 15 years, and British Muslims are an incredibly generous community who give over £100 million to international aid charities in Ramadan," he also said.

However, Christian groups criticize the green light given to the Muslim's planned ad campaign especially since a Christian cinema advert featuring parishioners reciting The Lord's Prayer was banned from playing in cinemas just a few months ago.

Some Christian supporters such as former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe reason that Christians should also be allowed to put up their religious banners if other religions are allowed to do the same.

"Britain is a Christian country and we Christians need to find our voice," Andrea Williams, director of Christian Concern told the Daily Mail. "If we are allowing these adverts for Islam, then we need to give the Christians far more freedom to express themselves," she added.

Christian Institute spokesperson Simon Calvert offered positive and hopeful words as he reflected on the Islamic bus ad campaign. He expressed his hope that the Islamic Relief campaign would pave the way for greater expressions of the Christian faith.