How to handle the WTC Mosque: Public Relations 201 (For Muslims)

The Modern Rumi ^ | August 18, 2010 | Hamza Khan

[La Lydia]

...While I do not think besieging Muslims will get America anywhere, I do believe Muslims are responsible for our current spate of public relations nightmares. Fortunately for Team Muslim-USA, my generation of Muslims...Our smarts (and charismatic good looks) can conquer the Mosque's PR crisis in a jiff. That's why below I have compiled a list of ideas I think that can begin to de-fuse the "WTC Mosque" crisis.

IT'S ALL IN THE NAME: BRAND AND RE-BRAND THE MOSQUE - "It's the Manhattan Mosque, stupid."

This one seems simple enough, except it isn't. A lot of the outrage about the mosque has to do with the Muslim community's failure to control the debate surrounding the controversy of building a mosque at ground zero, and that has a lot to do with the fact that our opponents have been able to label "Park51" as the mosque at Ground Zero. The Muslim community's multiple PR and political institutions have failed to pro-actively develop a suitable, politically correct label for the mosque. I propose the "Manhattan Mosque", because that's exactly what it is: a mosque in Manhattan. The truth is, of course, that this is a mosque inside of a cultural center...and besides, it would take 20 minutes to re-frame the debate around a community center, 5 minutes more than our 15 minutes of fame allow for.

TWITTER: Change the twitter hashtag...from: #Park51, #WTCMosque, #NYCMosque, #CordobaHouse, as well as many others not suitable for re-print here to #ManhattanMosque...

Re-name the building for an American Shaheed (martyr)... Before some readers suggest this as juvenile, note that many Jewish cultural and religious centers and synagogues do exactly that...

SOCIAL MEDIA OR "HOW TO FIGHT A PR WAR FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA" - Let's face it, at best there are 6 million of us Muslims in America. At worse, more like 2 million. That's a drop in the bucket considering we're over 300 million strong in terms of all Americans. We don't have the manpower to just "push back" an assault on our religion. But we do have the internet. And the internet has Facebook. Harnessing the power of interns public relations handlers for the Manhattan Mosque should develop a social media strategy (or hire me to do it), and a social media guidebook illustrating how everyday supporters of the Manhattan Mosque can help neutralize its detractors and their arguments through their existing social media platforms...

Keep it simple: focus on the mosque, otherwise you'll lose focus from the audience. Further, the current sanctioned title of "Park51" is just too sterile, though for the chief organizers of the mosque I think it's a good working title, but not for the rest of us who are working independently to ensure Cordoba House's construction....

[La Lydia]

It goes on and on. What she is saying, basically, is we are going to build this sucker where we want to build it, and we are working hard to make sure that the rest of the country SUCKS IT UP no matter how painful it is for them. At one point she says, "I make an impassioned case for the justness, and the necessity for the construction of what will come to be by God's grace, the most important Islamic building in North America."

[La Lydia]

ping

[MtnMan101]

[Silentgypsy]

Know thine enemy....

[La Lydia]

That was the idea.

[FrankR]

Send it viral...