A Great Idea - Do You Know How To Knit?

Chicks with Sticks Knit Stacks of Hats for IDF Soldiers

Cheshvan 17, 5769, 15 November 08 07:00by Aviva J. Woolf and Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) A project that started as a weekly knitting get-together has quickly transformed into a worldwide project to warm combat soldiers in Israel.

"Chicks with Sticks" is the brainchild of Channah Koppel, who described to Israel National Radio's Eve Harow of the Judean Eve program, how she mustered a group of amazing handcrafters in Gush Etzion to help produce winter hats for Israeli soldiers who serve in cold places.

The mission of kindness, which began last year, has grown exponentially in the past twelve months from a simple desire to do something to give back to the soldiers of the IDF.

What better way than to make sure these soldiers had warm winter hats? With a son serving as a paratrooper, Koppel knew conditions can get mighty chilly around this time of year and downright cold in the winter – especially in the north. "The hats provide both physical warmth and emotional support, and we feel good knowing that somewhere tonight, a soldier doing guard duty in the cold will be wearing one of our warm, hand-knitted hats, made with love," she explained.

Koppel decided to adopt the entire army and send all the soldiers black woolen hats. She sent out some emails and suddenly, hats started arriving from all over the world -- mostly from North America, but also from places such as England, Australia and France. She personally delivered several hundred hats to combat units in the Golan Heights and Mt. Hermon, but realized the task was becoming overwhelming, and contacted Barbara Silverman, founder of "A Package from Home" for help in making sure the hats reached soldiers everywhere in the country.

The "Chicks with Sticks" enlisted Silverman's organization for an extra bit of help from its wide network, especially in reaching the "chayalim bodedim" -- soldiers without families in Israel -- serving in combat units. Silverman's group also helped get the hats to soldiers stationed in the north, where the crisp mountain air and winter winds cut straight to the bone, as well as to balmier climes in the state.

It's "an intimate grassroots kind of thing," Koppel says, the kind of "homegrown" personal support that comforts those who must fight to defend the homeland. "A lot of people who call me represent other groups, like senior centers and other organizations that have knitters, so it's growing exponentially."

The "Chicks with Sticks" project has distributed several hundred hats so far, each with a special label sewn inside assuring its wearer in Hebrew that it was "Knit for you with love and warmth." They're also knit with special care: each hat must be knit to rigorous specifications set by the IDF that include a certain pattern due to the strict uniform regulations.

It's a tough job, but there are plenty of people out there who are willing to do it. In addition to Israeli knitters, participants have joined the project from aaround the world. Most are Jewish, but not all. Most are women – but not all. Any and all hats that follow the pattern are welcome, says Koppel.

And when every IDF soldier has a hat, what then? Koppel laughs, and points out "There are a lot of soldiers in the army!"

Anyone interesting in joining the project and knitting a hat for an Israeli soldier can email Channah Koppel at: Channahk@gmail.com . Finished hats can also be sent directly to Koppel at POB 3081, Efrat, 90435, Israel.

For those who are savvy with the sticks (read: knitting needles), here are two patterns, one for a hat that can be knit flat on two straight needles and one for a hat that can be knit in the round on a circular needle and/or double pointed needles. The latter method is recommended because it requires less sewing up at the end and tends to look neater. The cost of the wool is approximately NIS 10 in Israel and $4 in the United States.

Yarn: You must use machine washable, plain black worsted weight yarn - this is in order to comply with both the soldiers' requests and army regulations. Look for a yarn that is soft, warm and non-felting. Super-wash wool is best, although acrylic or a wool/acrylic mix is okay. You'll probably need about 220 yds / 200 m. Gauge: 24 or 28 stitches=4 inches / 10 cm in K2P2 rib stitch. Needles: Use whatever size needle you need to get gauge. The 4 mm - 5.5 mm range is a good place to start. For circulars, use a small circumference, 12" to 16".

Pattern A: Knit on Two Straight Needles:Loosely cast on 98 stitches and work back and forth in K2P2 rib as follows: Round 1 (right side): K1, [K2, P2] until one stitch remains, K1. Round 2 (wrong side): P1, [K2, P2] until one stitch remains, P1. Repeat these 2 rounds until work measures 9.5 inches / 24 cm, ending with a wrong side row. Shape crown: Row 1: On right side, K1, [K2, P2tog], K1. 74 stitches remain.Row 2: P1, [K1, P2], P1Row 3: On right side, K1, [K2tog, P1], K1. 50 stitches remain.Row 4: P1, [K1, P1], P1Row 5: K1 {2tog), K1. 26 stitches remain.Row 6: PurlRow 7: K1, [K2tog], K1. 14 stitches remain.Row 8: PurlRow 9: K1, [K2tog], K1. 8 stitches remainBreak yarn, leaving a 20-inch / 51 cm length. With a tapestry needle, thread the yarn through the remaining 8 stitches (pull tight) and then sew up the back seam using mattress stitch (to see an example click on "mattress stitch", scroll down to "Finishing" and then select "mattress stitch" for a short video demonstration.)

Pattern B: Knit first on a Circular needle and then on double pointeds (or, you can work the entire hat on double pointed needles if you prefer.) Loosely cast on 96 stitches. Join work, place marker, and work in K2P2 rib until work measure 9.5 inches / 24 cm.Shape crown:(Here you begin a series of decreasing rounds. When you find the hat getting too small to work on the circular needly, switch to double pointed needles.)Round 1: K2, P2tog to end of round. 72 stitches remain.Round 2: K2, P1Round 3: K2tog, P1 to end of round. 48 stitches remain.Round 4: K1, P1Round 5: K2tog to end of round. 24 stitches remain.Round 6: KnitRound 7: K2tog to end of round. 12 stitches remain.Round 8: KnitRound 9: K2tog to end of round. 6 stitches remain.Break yarn, leaving a 6-inch / 15 cm length. With a tapestry needle, thread the yarn through the remaining 6 stitches (pull tight).

Weave in the ends and admire your work! Please wash and dry your hat before mailing. Please include an email address so that you can be notified when your hat arrives.

Why Does A Busdriver With 22 Traffic Violations Still Have His License?

I was saddened to hear the news about the fatal bus crash that claimed 25 lives off Highway 12, just north of Eilat.

In the deadliest traffic accident in Israel’s history, 25 people were killed and 33 were injured Tuesday afternoon, as a private bus carrying travel agents from St. Petersburg, Russia, headed to Eilat from the Ovda Airfield in southern Israel, plunged into a dry river bed about 1.8 miles north of the resort town.

The bus driver had reportedly attempted to speed past another tour bus on a twisting road in a no-passing zone, when he crashed through a guardrail and then rolled 80 meters down the slope, overturning again and again in mid-air before hitting the bottom of the desert ravine. Some of the passengers were flung out of the bus.

Emergency search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the scene of the accident, which was promptly declared a mass casualty event. Upon arriving, the team found the bus had plummeted down a 45-feet chasm, apparently flipping over several times, as it was found to be completely crushed.

Evacuating the injured from the bottom of the ravine took nearly an hour.

"We need doctors here," was shouted over and over as first-aid was administered to dozens of injured people. The ground was lined with body bags.

Thirty-three people were hurt, including 23 in serious condition.

The 39-year-old bus driver, who sustained serious injuries, had 22 prior traffic convictions. While police officers said that was not unusual for someone who has been on the road for 20 years, they also said they believe he drove at a dangerously high speed for such a winding road.

As the gravity of the situation unfolded, the MDA sent paramedics to Eilat via plane to reinforce the local station. The Health Ministry called on medical personnel in Eilat to rush to the Yoseftal Medical Center in order to assist with the triage efforts of the victims; as did the Leumit Health Fund, which ordered 40 doctors and nursed attending a conference in the city to report to the hospital.

There was chaos at the scene of the accident, with the bodies of victims lying on the ground and debris scattered everywhere. Dozens of ambulances rushed to the site, which eyewitnesses said seemed like the scene of a massive terrorist attack or a combat zone.

The air force dispatched six helicopters to evacuate the seriously injured to hospitals across the country.

Michel Elkaslasy, the owner of the company which rented out the bus to the tourist's travel agency, rushed to the scene as soon as news of the crash broke. He told Ynet that "the tourists arrived from Russia. “The sight was horrible. The bus is upside-down at the end of nowhere... The bus apparently lost control. I see bodies scattered everywhere."

The more seriously injured victims of the crash were those who were thrown out of the bus, while those who were still inside were generally in better condition.

The steep road winding to Eilat is dotted with signs warning drivers to be careful.
An eyewitness said the bus was speeding recklessly when it veered off the road.

"The bus overtook in a reckless manner while speeding, went out to overtake another bus - I saw him and he almost overtook me - suddenly he turned left and then dropped," the eyewitness told Israel Radio.

After the accident was reported, the Health Ministry called on doctors and nurses vacationing in the Eilat area to volunteer and help the relatively small staff of the city's Josephthal Hospital in treating the victims. Dozens of medical staffers responded to the call.

Scores of soldiers and officers who were returning from vacations were the first to tend to the injured.

"I was in shock. I'm turning this over in my head - these things happen in the worst scenarios," the eyewitness said.

President Shimon Peres spoke Tuesday evening with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, sent the country's deepest condolences, and said "we feel as if this tragedy happened to us." Peres said that while the accident was caused by the mistake of one person, "the pain is felt by all of Israel."
I was just in Israel and witnessed myself how taxi drivers and Israeli citizens drive much too fast and too close together. They weave in and out of each others'' lanes without using their blinkers.

More than 30,000 people have died in traffic accidents since the State of Israel was established in 1948, a number that is greater by 6,000 than the total number of people killed in Israel's wars.

If someone asks me if it is dangerous in Israel, I tell them that my chances are greater to be killed in a car accident than by an Islamic Jihad warrior. Road accidents are among the most distressing daily occurrences in Israel.

My husband saved my life a couple of times holding me back, when I was trying to cross the road because the pedestrian light was green. I learned that in Israel, cars don’t necessarily stop at a red light.

In Kiryat Shmona children were trying to cross the street next to a school, when a driver almost hit them. He was shouting out of the car at the children. My husband shouted back at him, that he was the one who needed to stop.

Why is a bus driver with 22 prior traffic convictions still allowed to drive passengers for a private bus company? In most other countries his driver’s license would have been revoked a long time ago.

The Cooing Doll's Message

Americans go doll-crazy during the holiday season. If you do not have any idea what to get, why not get a doll for your daughter?

I still remember my first doll as if I just played with her yesterday. Her name was Suzie. She was made out of sackcloth and her black hair was made out of yarn. It was not easy to comb out, but I was able to braid it.

I think dolls have been pretty much with us since prehistoric times. Early dolls were made from primitive materials such as clay, fur, or wood. Until after WWII, Europe was a major hub for doll production. First, Germany produced many peg wooden dolls, a type of doll that has very simple peg joints and resembles a clothespin.

In addition to wooden dolls, wax dolls became popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Munich was a major manufacturing center for wax dolls, but some of the most distinctive wax dolls were created in England between 1850 and 1930. Wax modelers would model a doll head in wax or clay, and then use plaster to create a mold from the head. Then they would pour melted wax into the cast. The wax for the head would be very thin, no more than 3 mm. One of the first dolls that portrayed a baby was made in England from wax at the beginning of the 19th century.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Porcelain became popular. However, one had to be careful playing with dolls with porcelain heads, because they chipped easily, and these dolls ended up as collector items.

After World War II, doll makers experimented with plastics. They began to hard plastic dolls in the 1940s. - Although most dolls are now mass-manufactured using these modern materials, many modern doll makers are using the traditional materials of the past to make collectible dolls.
Throughout the years, doll play has been and still is a great pretend play of caring, nurturing and feeding activities. Doll play brings warmth, empathy and the ability to give care to others. Today they even make dolls talk, sing, drink and go potty.

Remember the "Cabbage Patch Craze" in the 1980s? People got up in the middle of the night and waited outside Toys- R-Us for hours on a frozen side walk until the doors opened up. Once they got inside the store, they ended up fighting with each other when the only available crate of Cabbage Patch Kids was put out on the floor.

Two years ago, the “Tickle Me Elmo” was the "must have" toy. Again, many parents literally fought other parents in North American toy stores to purchase one of the toys for Christmas. The short supply of the toy, due to unexpected demand, meant that stores hiked the price on the dolls drastically. Newspaper classifieds even sold the plush toy for hundreds of U.S.dollars.

This year’s holiday doll shoppers buy a new surprise. According to new reports, consumers across North America are returning a talking doll to stores that they claim says, “Islam is the light.” Fisher-Price’s Little Mommy Cuddle & Coo doll makes all sorts of noises, but some consumers say it also seems to produce Muslim propaganda.

There are 3 settings for playing with this doll: off, motion and sound, and motion with no sound. The girls prefer the motion and sound. A sensor in the forehead detects motion, and that will start the giggling, cooing, and movements. Besides giggling and making noises, it says "mama" which little mommies love to hear, but much to the parent’s surprise, it also says "Islam is the Light".

Mattel, the parent company, issued a statement saying that the doll says a word that could be interpreted as “night”, “right”, or “light.” “Because the original sound track is compressed into a file that can be played through an inexpensive toy speaker, actual sounds may be imprecise or distorted,” the company wrote in an October news release. Although Fisher-Price has changed the sound track, some stores have kept the controversially cooing dolls, where they will remain for unsuspecting consumers to buy.

“This is not a healthy thing to be putting out in the marketplace when we’re in a war on terror, and little children are so susceptible to the messages they hear – even from a doll – then to take them into the school and talk about them,” Minnesota Christian talk show host Jan Markell told OneNewsNow.

Why is this message deliberately hidden from the consumer inside a cute looking doll on a Wal-Mart shelf?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7uVFzBt9uE

Just A Small Group Of Fanatics

At the beginning of December, the horror of the Islamic attack in Mumbai shocked the world. Terrorists, armed with automatic weapons and grenades killed at least 101 people and wounded 287 more in Mumbai. Mumbai- formerly known as Bombay - is today’s financial capital of India. The attacks were carefully planned and carried out by devoted Muslims who were more than willing to sacrifice their own lives. The Chabad House attack, in particular, was cruel and hateful.

The coverage of the atrocity in Mumbai was disheartening but thoroughly predictable. Rather than discussing the reason for the attack, the entire focus was on who, which group or other could it be and whatever could they want? There were discussions if it was a new group, or an old one, or a made-up group, and whether or not there was a "link" to Al Qaeda. My goodness, - they called themselves "Mujahideen" (Allah’s soldiers); -the word itself explains the reason for the attack and who they are!

Yet, there was no discussion about the meaning of Jihad, because that would have meant using words like "Islam" and "Muslim" which in turn might have invited criminal legal action from the United Nations for inciting Islamophobia! It might have meant spelling out what a Mujahideen fighting in the cause of Allah (jihad fi sabil Allah) actually believes, and how he justifies violence in the name of his religion.

From the Gaza Strip, Palestinian terror groups keep firing rockets into Israel, while the world keeps talking about a cease fire. There are Fatah and Hamas fighters.

When I visited Israel’s northern border to Lebanon last month, I saw Hezbollah strongholds not far from UN posts. Hezbollah, the “party of God”, is a militant Islamic group in Lebanon.

All these different group names or “denominations” confuse the Westerners. What matters is that they all have a common goal. They are all Mujahideen, - Islamic Jihad fighters.

They believe that Allah called them to Jihad, a worldwide Jihad against western secular materialism, which they believe is the influence of Satan. (They may have a point there!)

They believe that it is every Muslims duty to be a soldier in this “Holy War” against the Western society.

The issues are made clear. Islam declares who its enemy is. According to them, the enemy is every idea, every word and every action that is in opposition to the will of Allah. In other words – all those who fail to submit to Islam - the infidels.

Their goal is to weaken non-Islamic societies. In the case above, they want the government of India to appease Muslims and meet their demands. And once those demands, whatever they may be, are met, other demands from Muslims will be made, and will have to be met, for there is no end to this.

Now you may understand better what is happening in Israel. Demands after demands and then more demands.

But after each new assault around the world, the media tells us: ”Its just a small group of fanatics.”

The UN's Obsession With Demonizing Israel

Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of NicaraguaThe Boston Globe By Jeff Jacoby THE PRESIDENT of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, last week denounced the policies of a certain Middle Eastern nation. They are "so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era," he said, "that the world must unite against them, demanding an "end to this massive abuse of human rights" and isolating the offending nation as it once isolated South Africa: with a punishing "campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions." Of which country was he speaking? Was it Saudi Arabia, where public facilities are segregated by sex, and where a pervasive system of gender apartheid denies women the right to drive, to dress as they choose, to freely marry or divorce, to vote, to appear in public without a male "guardian," or to give testimony on an equal basis with men? Was it Jordan, where the law explicitly bars Jews from citizenship and where the sale of land to a Jew was for decades not only illegal, but punishable by death? Was it Iran, where homosexuality is a capital crime - at least 200 Iranian gays were executed last year - and whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asserted at Columbia University that there are no homosexuals in Iran? Was it Sudan, where tens of thousands of black Africans in the country's southern region, most of them Christians or animists, have been abducted and sold into slavery by Arab militias backed by the Islamist regime in Khartoum? It was none of these. The General Assembly president, a radical Maryknoll priest who served as Nicaragua's foreign minister during the Sandinista regime in the 1980s, was not referring to any of the Middle East's Muslim autocracies and dictatorships, virtually all of which discriminate against ethnic and religious minorities. He was speaking of the Jewish state of Israel, the region's lone democracy, and the only one that guarantees the legal equality of all its citizens - one-fifth of whom are Muslim and Christian Arabs. D'Escoto's call for Israel to be shunned as a pariah and strangled economically came on the UN's Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, an annual occasion devoted to lamenting the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty in the 20th century, denouncing the national liberation movement - Zionism - that made that rebirth possible, and championing the cause of the Palestinian Arabs. The event occurs on or about Nov. 29, the anniversary of the UN vote in 1947 to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. There are impassioned speeches, in which Israel's sins are enumerated and condemned, and the statelessness of the Palestinians is bewailed. Unmentioned is the fact that Palestine's Arabs would have had their state 60 years ago had they and the Arab League not rejected the UN's decision and chosen instead to declare war on the new Jewish state. Like so much of what takes place at the UN, the obsession with demonizing Israel and extolling the Palestinians is grotesque and Orwellian. More than 1 million Israeli Arabs enjoy civil and political rights unmatched in the Arab world - yet Israel is accused of repression and human-rights abuse. Successive Israeli governments have endorsed a "two-state solution" - yet Israel is blasted as the obstacle to peace. The Palestinian Authority oversees the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich, and wants all Jews expelled from the land it claims for itself - yet Israel is labeled an "apartheid state" and singled out for condemnation and ostracism. Make no mistake: In likening Israel to apartheid-era South Africa, the UN is engaged not in anti-racism but in anti-Semitism. In the 1930s, the world's foremost anti-Semites demanded a boycott of Jewish businesses. Today they demand a boycott of the Jewish state. "No good German is still buying from a Jew," announced Hitler's Nazi Party in March 1933. "The boycott must be a universal one . . . and must hit Jewry where it is most vulnerable." Seventy-five years later, the president of the General Assembly urges the world to throttle Israel's 6 million Jews with "boycott, divestment, and sanctions." There is no significant difference between the two cases -- or the animus underlying them. When the UN adopted its odious "Zionism is racism resolution" in 1975, US Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan minced no words. "The United States," he declared, "does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act." Where is such a voice of moral outrage today? This article can be found at: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/11/30/the_uns_obsession_with_demonizing_israel/

Challenging Times

On my desk I have a little plaque that says:”Before you go to bed, give your troubles to God”. Everyone who read it said that they liked it.

Faith comes natural to all people. Otherwise, we wouldn’t step onto a plane. How do we know that the pilot is properly trained to fly the plane? How do we know that all parts of the plane are in working order? As a passenger I must believe that he knows what he is doing.

The question is where we invest our natural faith. Do we have faith in other people? Do we have faith in our own abilities? Or do we have faith in G-d?

Some people think the Bible is just a fairytale story. In Israel I am wondering how unbelievers explain the existence of all those biblical towns that have been there for thousands of years.

Today we seem to live in an age of anxiety, as the scenario the Bible predicted for the end times is being fulfilled before our eyes. Our faith is challenged, because the world doesn’t seem to make sense the way we thought it did. Our hearts become fearful. We look at things that happen around us with our natural eyes - the human viewpoint. Despair is rising within us.

Everyone has troubles. We face problems, affliction, suffering, and hardship. We need strength, endurance, and patience.

This is why we need to know how to trust in G-d's promises.

Only when we see the things that happen around us through our spiritual eyes - from His divine viewpoint - can we experience inner peace and freedom from worry and anxiety.

How can we know his promises? Well, they are found in the Bible. – The more we study the scriptures, the more we increase our knowledge base about G-d and that causes our faith to grow. Since God is unchangeable, He will continue to be mindful of us in the future as He has been in the past. - God never takes back or changes His promises. It's in the Bible, (Psalm 89:34), "I will not break my covenant or change what my lips have spoken."

When reading our newspapers and watching television here in Israel it is easy to lose faith and see the miracle of modern Israel about to melt away. But the newspapers and television cannot and will not portray the reality of Jewish faith.

It was impossible to even dream that a Jewish State could be reborn in 1948. It was a logical certainty that the June war of 1967 would see the Jewish State destroyed. Today it looks even worse; rockets are pointed at Israel from every surrounding state.

But G-d promised: “I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities; they will plant vineyards and drink their vine, cultivate gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their own soil, no more to be uprooted from their land, which I gave them.” (Amos 9:15)

The living G-d of Creation gave us a precious tool to enable us to live a good, happy and fulfilling life on this earth. Faith in G-d is our most powerful weapon.

"Islam", Got Questions? Get Answers!

After the collapse of Communism almost everyone seemed to be relived. Many thought that all threats to the American way of life had finally vanished. Then the sad events of
9-11 destroyed those hopes.

Today another force is working inside of America. This movement is far more malignant than Communism could have ever been. The movement is Islam, determined to bring our nation under its submission. It poses a much more realistic threat, because we naively believe the politically correct hype about Islam being a peaceful religion being fed to us on the evening news. The fact is - it is a religious as well as a political, economical and social system that demands rule over every aspect of life.

Daniel Pipes wrote in the New York Post: “The ambition to take over the United States is hardly a new one. The first Islamic missionaries from abroad arrived in the 1920s and unblushingly declared, ‘Our plan is, we are going to conquer America.’”

Shamim A. Siddiqi wrote a book on establishing "Islamic rule" in the United States, with the goal of Muslims creating "a strong lobby in Washington for the promotion of Islam in this country as well as elsewhere in the world." Some organizations also expressed a hope that one day soon Muslims would take over in the United States. – Only about one month after the Sept. 11 atrocities, a delegate at the American Muslim Alliance convention, held in San Jose, announced: "By the year 2020, we should have an American Muslim president of the United States."

I remember when the PBS documentary, “Jihad in America”, first aired nationwide in 1994. It was produced by investigative reporter Steven Emerson. Shortly thereafter it was however suppressed by the media, and I had difficulties getting the video tape.

Emerson was the first American journalist to document in chilling video the militant Islamic support networks and terrorist groups secretly operating on American soil. Emerson successfully infiltrated key conferences and rallies with hidden cameras in an effort to track down the people responsible for supporting and abetting terrorist activities on U.S. soil. At these events, and on this film, these extremists state their chilling intentions in their own words.

Counter-terrorism officials from the National Security Council, Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) acknowledged that Emerson's documentary demonstrated that he had more reliable and accurate information about the secret terrorist networks on American soil than the US Government.

Today, a large army of Muslim activists is active in America and its soldiers are working fervently to achieve their goal. It is nothing less than converting Americans to Islam and turning it into an Islamic State. Sadly, in this battle, the most powerful nation on earth is losing ground.Muslim activists have learned how to manipulate us through our democratic laws and liberal immigration policies. We swung open our doors and they have launched an invasion that is undermining the very fabric of our civilization.

Just last month, an Islam advertisement was displayed on several Chicago Transit Authority buses. American Muslims launched a campaign to inform people about Islam via a bus, - with a simple sign: "ISLAM" Got Questions? Get Answers! GainPeace, an outreach project of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), was initiated to share Islam with non-Muslims to clarify many misconceptions they may hold due to “biased” reporting in the Media. The Islam ad campaign does not run in Chicago alone. ICNA, a New York-based grass-root organization that has 22 chapters across the US, has organized similar campaigns in Seattle and New York, Islam newsroom said. Each metro bus was covered on its side and on the top panel with beautiful message of Islam, Inshallah. The group spent $30,900 to place signs on 25 public buses serving across Chicago.

As the buses roam through our cities, making frequent stops, they are promoting the worship of Allah, inviting Americans to study and convert to Islam.

Got any more questions on Islam?