By Ellen Kobe<\/p>\n
Hasan Ahmad, or @hasanahmad80<\/a>, as he is known in the Twitter<\/a>-verse, sat on his computer Tuesday morning tweeting a series of photos with the hashtag #WhatAMuslimLooksLike<\/a>. The 34-year-old in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, received 63 \u201clikes\u201d and 43 \u201cfavorites\u201d (at the time of publication) on one photo of Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy<\/a>, an online education platform.<\/p>\n Ahmad and Khan have at least one thing in common \u2014 they are Muslims.<\/p>\n #WhataMuslimLooksLike<\/a> Salman Khan , creator of Khan Academy. Providing free education to everyone pic.twitter.com\/4bnl04Fc7E<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Hasan Ahmad (@hasanahmad80) January 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Ahmad\u2019s Twitter efforts were for the #WhatAMuslimLooksLike social media campaign, a hashtag-based conversation started by the Center for American-Islamic Relations in Chicago<\/a>. Ahmad\u2019s tweet was just one of more than 1,300 that have been sent out since the campaign began Monday afternoon. The online discussion, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, aims at highlighting the variety of people who practice Islam.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought there was a lack in dialogue of how truly diverse Muslims are,\u201d said Renner Larson<\/a>, communications coordinator at CAIR-Chicago.<\/p>\n The stats for Ahmad\u2019s tweet about Khan aren\u2019t groundbreaking. But Ahmad said any effort he can make to educate the public about Muslims would benefit society as a whole.<\/p>\n \u201cI focused on people who were contributing to society on a non-religious basis,\u201d Ahmad said. \u201cThat\u2019s what people want to see \u2014 positive change at the community and the society level.\u201d<\/p>\n The #WhatAMuslimLooksLike conversation, which revolved around the Twitter hashtag that users could click on and follow, didn\u2019t necessarily start as a formal campaign effort, Larson said. There was no planning, no structure, no immediate goal in mind. But the hashtag became widely used, garnering tweets from across the nation and overseas.<\/p>\n Kids promoting brotherhood #whatamuslimlookslike<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/dgHHvcyexs<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Khan (@salkakar) January 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Salman Khan<\/a> \u2014 not the educator mentioned earlier, but a 33-year-old from Lloydminster, Alberta, in Canada \u2014 said that he felt inclined to participate because of the negative portrayals of Muslims in the national news media, particularly after the Charlie Hebdo attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people around the world should know that there are more Muslims around this world that do–not a whole lot–but a little bit to make this world a better place,\u201d Khan said, adding that while watching news about terrorists associated with Islam, he often hears pundits question the existence of peaceful Muslims. \u201cThis is our way of reaching out and saying, \u2018Here we are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The #WhatAMuslimLooksLike campaign is geared toward educating those who do not practice Islam or know any Muslims, Larson said. Scott Alexander<\/a>, associate professor of Islamic Studies at Catholic Theological Union<\/a>, said that the campaign achieves this in two ways: by treating Muslims as individuals and by showing images of Muslims that differ from the terrorists that people see in the mainstream media.<\/p>\n But the difficulty in reaching new audiences lies in the fact that many social media users choose who they follow based on their own beliefs. Alexander said that in this case, this isn\u2019t a bad thing.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a big proponent of preaching to the choir because the choir needs preaching,\u201d said Alexander, who is also director of the Catholic-Muslim studies program. \u201cThe choir is your core constituency. The choir has lives outside of the church and friends outside the church.\u201d<\/p>\n With this notion, Alexander said that #WhatAMuslimLooksLike has the potential to spread to social media users who aren\u2019t familiar with Muslims.<\/p>\n #WhatAMuslimLooksLike<\/a> Malala Yousufzai. Advocate for girls education. Nobel Peace Prize winner pic.twitter.com\/OCxwTm63nL<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Hasan Ahmad (@hasanahmad80) January 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n But still, a few tweeters have used the hashtag in the opposite way that CAIR-Chicago intended. For example, one user used the hashtag to tweet photos of murders by terrorists. Ahmad said another user condemned his tweet about Malala Yousafzai<\/a>, a Pakistani activist for female education and a Nobel Prize winner.<\/p>\n Jill Goddard, public relations director at the Unitarian Universalist Association<\/a> in Boston, said her organization has experience with similar online campaigns after tragedy. The association\u2019s Standing on the Side of Love<\/a> campaign emerged after a shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n Goddard said that with the campaign, her organization was able to successfully change the conversation from talking about being victimized by gun violence to showing strength and love in spite of the incident.<\/p>\n She noted that online campaigns such as #WhatAMuslimLooksLike are ways to engage and connect with people of different faiths.<\/p>\n \u201cIt inspires people to learn more about a religious community, see themselves within that religious community and perhaps challenge their own beliefs,\u201d Goddard said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ellen Kobe Hasan Ahmad, or @hasanahmad80, as he is known in the Twitter-verse, sat on his computer Tuesday morning tweeting a series of photos with the hashtag #WhatAMuslimLooksLike. The 34-year-old in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, received 63 \u201clikes\u201d and 43 \u201cfavorites\u201d (at the time of publication) on one photo of Salman Khan, the founder of Khan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n