Contradictory ad campaigns expose the gap between America’s image and reality for Muslims.

Evidence

The U.S. Shared Values campaign emphasizes that Muslims are recent immigrants and are treated fairly in a country in which they are foreigners, while the CAIR ads emphasize that Muslims are not recent immigrants and therefore are part of the U.S. nation. While these campaigns are commendable in their efforts to promote cross-cultural understanding, it is more significant that they reveal the contradictions within America’s presentation of Muslims. If Muslims were truly part of the U.S. national community in the way that the government claims in their Shared Values campaign, then there would have been no need for CAIR to produce their “I am an American Muslim” ads, with their message to non-Muslims that Muslims are American too. While CAIR seeks to alter material reality through an ideological product, the U.S. government ads seek to cover material reality through an ideological campaign. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1306

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes an ideological product meant to change reality from an ideological campaign meant to obscure it.