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LOS ANGELES — Billboards designed to restore the image of Islam are going up along Southern California roads and freeways. 

Beginning Friday, three billboards sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Southern California in Los Angeles and Orange Counties will show the faces of seven smiling Muslims from various sex, age and ethnic backgrounds. 

A message below the pictures reads: “Even a smile is Charity – a message from your Muslim neighbor.” 

The image of Islam and its followers was tarnished because of the actions of a few on Sept. 11, CAIR officials said. 

The billboard campaign to promote religious tolerance is believed to be the first in the nation conducted by Muslims, a spokesman said. 

“There have been some people who have damaged the image of Islam,” said CAIR’s Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. “Our goal is to simply correct that image.” 

“These days any good image of Islam is few and far between,” said Salam Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. “Any positive image of Muslims with an effective sound bite does have an affect on America.” 

Ayloush said the group’s initial, nonreligious message will be the first of several. Other messages will stress the importance of family and helping and respecting each other. 

Jewish leaders and members of the Muslim-Jewish Dialogue, an interfaith group, said they applaud CAIR’s campaign. 

“Any effort to promote religious tolerance is a good one,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. 

“It’s a noble cause to help educate the American public about the true principles of Islam and to reach out and extend an invitation to dialogue,” said Al-Marayati, who is also a member of the interfaith group Muslim-Jewish Dialogue. 

Ayloush said he hopes the billboards won’t become targets of hate crimes. 

“If anyone decides to vandalize them, then there’s nothing we can do about that,” he said. 

The billboards cost between $3,000 and $8,000 each and are funded by donations, many of them from CAIR members. Ayloush estimated that Southern California’s chapter has around 8,000 members. 

Muslim communities in Columbus, Ohio, and Dallas, Texas, have expressed interests in putting up similar billboards in their cities, Ayloush said.