WASHINGTON – It’s been a little less than two weeks since anti-Jihad ads were posted in Washington subways and now critics are fighting back with an ad of their own.
Representatives from the Shoulder-to-Shoulder campaign, a partnership of 23 other faith organizations have said the counter ads will soon run in Washington, New York and San Francisco, where the anti-Jihad ads also run.
The new ads read: “Hate speech is not civilized. Support peace in word and deed.” The campaign is funded by the group United Methodist Women.
The controversial anti-Jihad ads, which a judge forced the Washington and New York city subways system to post on first amendment grounds, read: “ In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”
Executive director Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the group that paid for the anti-Jihad ads, has said in interviews the ads were in response to anti-Israel ads that have run freely for years in New York.
The layer representing the group behind the anti-Jihad ads, Robert J. Muise of the American Freedom Law Center, said the message in the ad is clear: “Those that engage in violence against innocent civilians in Israel are savages.” He later added, “people ought to be on the side of civilized people in this battle, which is Israel.”
Some wonder if the ads will provoke or incite violence in the wake of the violent protests in the Middle East after the publishing of a film, “Innocence of Muslims,” made in the U.S. insulting the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
Ibrahim Hooper of the Washington-based group the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the group is trying to incite “Islamophobia,” a problem he says is growing in America.
“Were concerned this rising level of anti-Muslim sentiment and this ad is just part of that has and does provoke anti-Muslim incidents,” said Hooper. “We’ve seen firebombs. We’ve seen acid bombs thrown at an Islamic school. We’ve seen Muslim graves desecrated.”
The anti-Jihad ads will be allowed to run for one month. Last month an Egyptian activist was arrested in New York after spray-painting the anti-Jihad ads. In Washington a teacher plastered the anti-Jihad ad with post-it notes in an attempt to demonstrate her own right to free speech. The spokesman for the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority has said the post-its were quickly removed and the teacher was not arrested.