Vile ads on San Francisco buses denounced as racist, anti-Islamic

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
3/14/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

'Killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah,' one ad reads

Anti-Islamic advertisements that will appear on 10 buses next month in San Francisco have been denounced by civic officials, Arab and Muslim leaders as offensive and racist. Paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the ads feature Osama bin Laden, the Times Square car bomber and the alleged gunman in the Fort Hood, Texas, shootings with quotes that the group links to Islam.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative plans to run these ads that show Islam is a homophobic religion in a predominantly gay-friendly city on buses. The group says it wants to show how Islam is a destructive force in today's world.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "Killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah," reads one such advertisement.

"These offensive ads serve no purpose than to denigrate our city's Arab and Muslim communities," District Attorney George Gascon says.

"San Francisco is a city that celebrates its diversity and hateful speech and discrimination against our Arab and Muslim communities will never be tolerated," San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee added.

Board of Supervisors president David Chiu was expected to introduce a resolution condemning the ads.

Similar ads have appeared on transit systems in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Portland, Oregon. The American Freedom Defense Initiative also ran similar ads in San Francisco last August and has also posted ads in New York City, including one in September that called enemies of Israel "savages."

Officials with San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Authority believe a First Amendment court decision protecting freedom of speech means it must accept the advertising.

The transit agency plans to give the $5,000 paid for the ads to the city's Human Rights Commission to study the impact of discrimination on San Francisco's Islamic communities and run its own ads against discrimination. The action was similar to what they did last summer.

Executive Director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative Pamela Geller says that the purpose of the campaign is to show the "reality of jihad and root causes of terrorism, from the words of jihadists themselves.

"City officials denounce our ads, but not the actual quotes from high-profile jihadists calling for holy war and genocide," she said in an email. "Our new campaign focuses on how jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism."

� 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Islam, San Francisco, advertisements, American Freedom Defense Initiative

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1 - 5 of 5 Comments

james holland
2 months ago
San Francisco where I live is an interesting place. Put on a nun's outfit and make fun of Catholics, and it's free speech. Make fun of Islam, it's hate speech. Catholic Lech Walesa of Poland says something anti-gay and Folk singer Michelle Schocked who attends a black Pentecostal church says something anti-gay and they are vilified. Islamic leaders say something anti-gay and San Francisco's civic leaders go overboard to make excuses for them. A Catholic cardinal speaks against Catholic marriage and he is labeled homophobic . An Iman calls for gay men to be beheaded, hung or stoned and our civic leaders ignore it. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?
Marie
3 months ago
Your errant headline, "Vile ads on on SF buses denounced as racist, anti-Islamic" betrays the truth: The ads are not vile; the ideology that inspires the quotes in the ads is vile.

The headline also plays into the popular fallacy, commonly used to censor thought, that Islam is a race; Islam is not a race. There is nothing racist about pointing out the dangers of an religion/ideology that seeks domination, and justifies persecution, killing and destruction in its name (see Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, etc.).

The global existential collision course with Islam is a current reality for many suffering Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Atheists, Jews, homosexuals, women, child slaves and more. The conversation of whether or not coexistence with Islam is possible is an important one that deserves more thoughtfulness than brandishing the label, 'anti-Islamic' to any questioning or acknowledgment of evil in our world.
johne
3 months ago
No mention of the 57 islamic states was on christians and all non muslims. Calling a duck, a duck is not racism
tomas
3 months ago
It should be mentioned that these ads are a response to other ads that have already run on similar transit systems in the U.S. Those ads seem to be an attempt to redefine what the word jihad means in Islamic history and theology. Jihad in these areas most often means "holy war". As such, it is without surprise that someone has to decided to challenge this attempt
Michael
3 months ago
SAN FRANCISCO TO BECOME BATTLEGROUND! It is no secret Islam openly opposes homosexuality! As Sharia Law incrementally escalates with increased muslim demographics, this major conflict is inevitable!

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