U.K. buses to carry slogan praising Allah; Christian group deems it unfair

The Muslim observation of Ramadan this year will begin June 7, and in the two weeks leading to it, people in London will be seeing buses emblazoned with ads that say "Subhan Allah," which translates as "Glory be to God." This, however, is deemed as unfair by Christians whose own attempts at advertising their beliefs have allegedly been suppressed.

"We have chosen bus advertising because it allows us to put our message across cost-effectively to a wide cross section of people," said Islamic Relief UK director Imran Madden, as quoted by The Yorkshire Post. "This campaign is about raising awareness as well as raising funds. We hope it will be received very positively because we have a positive message to share."

According to the report, the Islamic slogan will be placed in 180 buses in London. After the month-long Ramadan, it will be put on 460 buses that travel across cities with high Muslim populations, including Bradford, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leicester. The ads aim to help curb the "negative climate" that surrounds or is assocated with Muslim communities in the United Kingdom as well as with 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," Madden said. "British Muslims are an incredibly generous community who give over £100 million to international aid charities in Ramadan."

However, Christians see this as unfair. In 2014, Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London, blocked a bus advertisement that he deemed as "offensive to gays" as it suggests that homosexuals can "get over" homosexuality. Similarly, an ad that featured people, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, reciting the Lord's Prayer was not allowed to be shown in Cineworld, Odeon, and Vue movie theaters late last year.

"Increasingly what we see is accommodation being made for certain groups and a fear by the elite of consequence if they do not make way for certain groups," said Andrea Williams, head of Christian Concern. "It (the ruling elite) bends over backwards to ensure that groups like (gay rights charity) Stonewall and Islamic Relief are given space but is very concerned when it comes to Christian advertising or morality, so that is where you find a certain message being censored."

She said that the elite are afraid that Christian messages would offend; thus, they are censoring these from public spaces, as can be seen in their cases at the Christian Legal Centre. Meanwhile, for fear of being seen as critizing Islam, they accomodate Islam as much as possible.

"If these adverts are running then we should ensure that space is given for Christian adverts to run," Williams said, "but what we are seeing in many situations is the removal of access to public space for Christian groups."

Islamic Relief UK, however, told The Independent that this is a fundraising campaign similar to those raised by Christian Aid, Tearfund, and other Christian charities. It's a part of wider campaign with leaflets, posters, and videos that would give information about their humanitarian projects in Bangladesh, Kenya, Syria and Gaza. 

And just as Christians seem to be more generous during Christmas, Muslims tend to give generously during Ramadan.