WASHINGTON, February 16 (News Agencies) – Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has launched a year-long "Islam in America" advertising campaign designed to foster greater understanding of Islam and to counter the rising tide of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the United States.

The campaign will kick off with an ad, headlined "We're All Americans," in the New York Times editorial page on Sunday, February 16.

CAIR's weekly ads, each explaining one aspect of Islam, will be available

to Muslim communities around America for placement in local newspapers.

The first ad was titled with a question says “We're All Americans...but, which one of us is a Muslim?”

Then the answer came as the ad said “ we all are ..we are Americans Muslims, It's impossible to make general assumptions about Muslims because we represent more than one billion people from a vast range of races, nationalities and cultures - from the South Pacific to the horn of Africa.

“Only about 18 percent of Muslims live in the Arabic-speaking world. The largest Muslim community is in Indonesia. Substantial parts of Asia and most of Africa have Muslim majority populations, while significant minorities are to be found in the countries of the former Soviet Union, China, North and South America, and Europe,” the ad clarified.

“American Muslims are an equally diverse group of people. We’re immigrants from across the globe who came here seeking freedom and opportunity.

We’re the children of immigrant parents, and descendants of Africans who have called America home for generations. We're converts of varied nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. We’re doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians, civil rights activists, mothers, fathers, students,” it stressed.

“Making our homes and raising our families in communities across America. What we all have in common is a shared faith and a shared commitment to our nation’s safety and prosperity. We’re Americans and we’re Muslims,” it added.

Omar Ahmad, board director in CAIR, said that without the availability of the correct and balanced information about Islam and Muslims, the normal American will be exposed to believe people who encourage hate against Muslims in the U.S. and around the world, those people are aiming at emblaze conflict between civilizations and religions.

“Muslims have to be initiative to define Islam to others, otherwise the definition process will be on the hand of people with political and religious Agenda aiming at encouraging conflict”, Nehad Awad, General Manager said.

The campaign will cost 4 million dollars, starting with ad published on Sunday in the widely spread American newspaper, New York Times, which circulate 1.6 million copy per day.