As much as I respect Lubavitchers and hang out at chabad houses, I understand that people dislike chabad for many reasons, some founded and some unfounded – the number one reason being the messianic stuff(which no one has ever been able to explain to me if it is really against halacha or just not politically correct). When you hang around chabadnicks long enough you learn to be able to tell the difference between the Meshichist and Anti-meshichist chabadnicks pretty easily.
Unfortunately, there has never been a PR campaign from chabad to dispel the common snag idea that all members of chabad believe that the Rebbe is Moshiach and I think that is one of the reasons many people think so. One of my biggest issues with the concept of the Rebbe being Moshiach is that it really belittles the Rebbe’s accomplishments as one of the Gadol Hadors of the 1900’s. I am super proud, that the only funeral of a great Rav I have ever attended was the Rebbe’s lavaya (my father forced us to go and I’m glad)
I wish more chabadnicks would make videos and write posts about the issues and explain to people the heart break that goes in on chabad communities with regards to this issue. I think the video below is a really good at the issue – not just some angry anti-chabad rant, which it commonly is.