BOSTON – The city of Boston has launched on Tuesday, July 18, a poster campaign to fight Islamophobia in a public space by encouraging bystanders to intervene if they witness attacks on Muslims.

“These posters are one tool we have to send the message that all are welcome in Boston,” Mayor Marty Walsh said, according to the AP.

“Education is key to fighting intolerance, and these posters share a simple strategy for engaging with those around you.”

The cartoon how-to guide was drawn by a Paris-based artist named Maeril and translated into English for The Middle Eastern Feminist group on Facebook.

Instead of interacting with the attacker, which might turn problematic in many cases, Maeril focused on ignoring him totally and focusing on the person being attacked.

The 4-step guide, made in comics, has been shared thousands of times on Tumblr when released in September 2016.

“The technique is called ‘non-complementary behavior,’ and is intended to disempower an aggressive person by countering their expectations,” The Associated Press reports.

The posters will remain in place for six months, as a similar campaign is underway in San Francisco.

Timed Initiative

The city’s initiative to counter Islamophobia has been praised by Muslims as timely.

“The climate across the nation is certainly different under the current White House administration,” Yusufi Vali, executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, told WBUR.

“The Boston-Muslim community is feeling what the rest of the nation is feeling: a lot of uncertainty and a sense of insecurity.”

He said he felt heartened by the city’s efforts to make Muslims feel welcome.

“We are touched by the mayor’s team taking this on,” Vali said. “It speaks to how Boston truly is a home for its Muslims.”

Lisa Creamer, of member station WBUR, reports that Boston’s poster initiative “follows recent charges against a man for allegedly yelling anti-Muslim slurs at a 61-year-old woman who was wearing a headscarf and riding the Orange Line.”

“It’s an awkward place to be in, when you see someone being harassed,” said Faisa Sharif, Boston’s citywide Somali neighborhood service liaison.

“[The poster] does feature a Muslim woman, a woman in hijab. But I think it applies across all people from different backgrounds who are just in a tense situation in public or being harassed in public.”

The number of reported hate crimes targeting Muslims tripled from 5 in 2015 to 19 in 2016, according to a Boston Globe analysis of Boston police data.