From the Chicago Tribune:
The controversial ads unveiled on the back of 10 CTA buses Wednesday
read, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the
civilized man.” They conclude with the words, “Support Copts. Defeat
Jihad,” referring to friction between Muslims and Coptic Christians in
Egypt.
Within hours of the buses' first runs, messages appeared
on Facebook and Twitter denouncing the campaign. Many said degrading a
spiritual tenet of Islam -- one that refers to a Muslim's personal quest
to become a better person -- amounts to hate speech.
“This whole
campaign insinuates Muslims are violent,” said Asaf Bar-Tura, programs
director for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, which protested the
ads on social media Wednesday. “If it's within their legal powers, (CTA)
should either not put it up because they incite hate and stereotypical
thinking or put a label next to each sign saying `The CTA disagrees with
this ad.’ ”
So far, federal judges have
sided with the advertisement's sponsor, the American Freedom Defense
Initiative, which sued transit authorities in New York City and
Washington, D.C., when they initially rejected the ads. Those judges
ruled that public forums such as buses and trains can't bar advertising
entitled to First Amendment protection.
Pamela Geller, executive
director of the initiative, said she believes the Jewish Council has
good intentions, but denies that her ad qualifies as hate speech.
"There’s
nothing hateful about it," she said in an e-mail. "9/11 was hate. 3/11
in Madrid was hate. ... The Christmas underwear bomber was hate. ...
Pushing back against such hate is not hate." http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-jihad-ads-on-cta-buses-cause-controversy-20121114,0,6134745.story
Good for the Coptics. And to Mr. Bar-Tura, while not all Muslims are violent, many Muslims world wide are violent, treat women with disrespect at best and hate homosexuals to the point of killing them in several parts of the world. It's a religion that is backwards and in many places, hateful.
Not all Muslims radicals or killers or condemn those who are, but those people are few and far behind.
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