Have you figured out yet what “anti-jihad” blogger Pamela Geller thinks of Islam? If the “savages” ads and the World Trade Center ads didn’t make the picture clear, you’re in luck: Geller and her group are returning to the Metro, this time with a campaign modeled on a pro-Muslim campaign currently in the system.
Geller’s new ads are a reaction to the #MyJihad ads sponsored by the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which feature characters describing their “jihad” innocuously: “#MyJihad is to build bridges through friendships.” In contrast, the campaign sponsored by Geller and her American Freedom Defense Initiative feature more menacing quotes involving people like Osama bin Laden and accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, above.
Via email, Geller confirmed that the ads are coming to the Metro system. While it’s not clear yet when they’ll be posted, Metro General Manager Richard Sarles referenced the new ads in an email to employees:
I want to let you know that a number of new advertisements are scheduled for display in our system and some may be offensive to our employees and our customers. These ads, like others we’ve displayed because the courts have deemed our advertising program as a public forum, are protected under the First Amendment. However, we now require that they include a disclaimer that the views and opinions expressed are not endorsed by WMATA and do not represent the views of the Agency.
Fighting the first round of “anti-jihad” ads cost Metro $35,000 in attorney’s fees.
Washington City Paper, 8 February 2013
Geller has already been boasting that the Chicago Transit Authority has been forced to agree to run the ads on their buses.
A report in the Daily Caller quotes a letter from a CTA lawyer who states that Geller and her supporters have already won two lawsuits and that there is no alternative but to run the ads, despite the fact that they are “morally reprehensible – advocating racism, hatred and intolerance of cultural diversity”.
Geller, for her part, accuses the CTA of covering up for “the most extreme, brutal and racist ideology on the face of the earth” and says she is “looking into suing them for their racist charge”. So much for free speech when it come to the rights of Geller’s critics.
