As the United States prepares to mark 25 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks, a major press release distribution service rejected an announcement for a campaign devoted to victims of jihadist terrorism, warning organizers that the initiative could be viewed as inflammatory or prejudicial toward Muslims.
PR Newswire, which is owned by the communications company Cision, refused to distribute the announcement for a campaign called “Infidel Awareness Month,” according to an email obtained by The Daily Wire. It is scheduled to run from September 11 through October 7, using the anniversaries of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel as bookends for a month of films, testimony, interviews, research, and daily discussions about Islamic extremism and its victims.
But before the observance even began, the campaign encountered a controversy of its own. Cision, the parent company of PR Newswire, rejected the group’s press release announcing the initiative, telling organizers that the release could be interpreted as inflammatory or prejudicial toward a religious group.
“After review of your release with the headline ‘‘Infidel Awareness Month’ launches on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11,’ we have determined that this release will not be an appropriate fit for Cision’s distribution network,” the company told organizers in an email obtained by The Daily Wire.
“Our concern is primarily that the nature of the initiative can reasonably be construed as being inflammatory and inciteful against a group of people,” Cision continued. “Per our guidelines, Cision will not knowingly transmit content that reads — or could reasonably be interpreted to read — as abusive or threatening speech, or writing that expresses prejudice against a particular group, especially on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation.”
“For this reason, the release has been canceled out of our system,” the company concluded.
The rejection is notable because the organization’s own statement explicitly distinguishes its opposition to jihadist ideology from hostility toward Muslims.
“Hatred of Muslims as people, bigotry, discrimination, and violence directed at men and women because they are Muslim, is real, and it is as abhorrent as every other form of bigotry,” the organization says. “We condemn it without reservation.”
“Muslims are entitled to exactly the dignity, safety, and equal standing that everyone else is owed,” the statement continues. The group says its target is not Muslims as a people, but what it describes as a “supremacist current within Islam” that has inspired terrorism and political violence. “No to supremacist Islam. Yes to Muslims who live as our neighbors,” the organization says.
Historian Richard Landes founded the initiative, which includes former Muslims, scholars, philosophers, filmmakers, Jews, and Christians. Its inaugural observance, billed as “27 Days of Truth,” will focus on victims of jihadist violence.
The campaign is organized around three themes: “A Record,” documenting and remembering victims; “A Reckoning,” examining what organizers say are euphemisms and institutional failures surrounding jihadist ideology; and “A Warning,” arguing that jihadist movements remain a threat even after the territorial defeat of ISIS and the death of Osama bin Laden.
“Infidel Awareness Month is about remembering, understanding, and speaking plainly,” Landes said in the group’s announcement. “We cannot defend a free society if we are afraid to name the ideology that has repeatedly declared us its enemy.”
Danny Burmawi, a former Muslim from Jordan who is now founder and CEO of the Ideological Defense Institute, a partner in the project, shared his transformation from celebrating the September 11 attacks as a child to opposing jihadist ideology.
“Twenty-five years ago, as a boy in Amman, I cheered when the towers fell. Today I am a proud infidel,” Burmawi said. “The Month is about confronting the threat of an ideology that demands submission and seeks to impose Sharia law across society.”
Burmawi also emphasized that the initiative is not intended as a campaign against Muslims.
“Muslims are this ideology’s first victims, and some of its bravest opponents are those, like me, who left it,” he said.
In a July essay announcing the initiative, Landes proposed making Infidel Awareness Month an annual observance through 2076.
Cision’s PR Newswire says its distribution network includes more than 82,000 media and syndication outlets and more than 300,000 journalists and influencers.
The Daily Wire asked Cision what specific language violated its standards and whether the company had considered the initiative’s explicit condemnation of anti-Muslim bigotry.
Cision did not provide a response by publication.
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