New Yorkers woke up this morning to subways covered in propaganda posters promoting Israel and dismissing Islam pinning it instead as ‘Jehad’. With the message clearly being one of the ultimately most racist posts I have seen in a while. But in the land of the free it is all the same your right as the first amendment states, to spread the below message.
The campaign was launched by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), an organization categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center watch group. Pamela Geller is the executive director of this fun organization and has mostly been the spokesperson in most recent events, making statements such as “I will not abridge my freedoms so as not to offend savages,” & in an interview with Sky News. Geller a firm believer in the ’cause’ and has made several statements like the above, with her vision being very clear “If I had my way, they’d be in every city in the United States of America and if I can get the funding, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
Now the big question, how is this legal? How is this not considered hate speech? The AFDI won their right fair and square after a long legal battle that ended in July with a Manhattan federal judge agreeing that the First Amendment allowed Geller to have her ads run in the subway.
Responses from the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League have stated Geller “fuels and fosters anti-Muslim bigotry in society.”
On the Muslim front Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations also responded condemning Geller’s actions, but agreeing with the federal judge’s decision regardless.
“Our basic position is that the first amendment means that everyone is free to be a bigot or even an idiot like Pamela Geller,” Hooper tells Sky. “We wish she wasn’t provoking and inciting hatred, but in America that’s her right.”
“We encourage Muslims to exercise the same right to publicly denounce such adverts. The real danger is the spread of hatred in our society, which can lead to attacks on innocent people.”
New Yorkers have responded with already put up a counter ‘Racist’ banner on top of the ad’s with what I see some very heavy media coverage coming its way, as if there hasn’t been enough of that lately.
WE SAID THIS: There Is A Fine Line Between Your Rights, Your Opinions & Basic Respect, America Seems To Have Left It’s Ethics At Home Today.