Anti-Muslim Long Island blogger to run ads linking Hitler to Islam on DC area buses (via Raw Story )
An organization run by an anti-Mulsim blogger has purchased billboards on the sides of twenty Washington DC Metro buses featuring Adolph Hitler and calling for an end to ‘all aid to Islamic countries.’ The ads are paid for by American Freedom Defense…
This post was republished using Repost. Please read it on Informed Comment directly: https://www.juancole.com/2014/05/blogger-russell-against.html
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Russell Brand The Trews Ep57: “Do The Media Encourage Islamophobia?”
America’s media is anti-Israel? When did that happen?
She certainly seems to be unhinged and her attitudes are blatantly bigoted. That said she, and the organisation she leads, are entitled to voice their opinions through legally proscribed means and the fact that they seem to be pushing for an actual government policy it certainly seems like it should be legal to me.
Of course, anyone who falls back on Hitler to make their argument loses the debate pre-emptively.
I just have to disagree with the idea that this is protected free speech. Denying this on the side of a bus does not prohibit their speech. Second, it impinges on the free speech of others–particularly passengers. who have little choice but to ride these buses to get to work. What is it to ride on a bus displaying such a message. It is particularly ludicrous that a public transportation company has no rights to speech of its own given recent opinions allowing corporations to spend away based on “money is speech.”
It has never been the case that all speech is protected speech. You cannot protest on the steps of the Supreme Court for example and part of the argument is that this does not prevent your speech–you just have to do it from behind the barricade at a certain distance. Classic example is that it is not ruled free speech to yell “fire” in a theater.
This placement on public transportation buses that is a so called form of free speech impinges upon the free speech of others.
There are extensive federal court opinions that have established the parameters of the First Amendment in bus advertising cases that require the transportation authorities who allow political advertising to permit ALL such advertising regardless of actual content.
In Ann Arbor, Michigan a pro-Palestine activist was denied a “Boycott Israel” ad on a bus and the ACLU filed a First Amendment lawsuit resulting in a preliminary injunction issuance and eventual monetary settlement with the ACLU in exchange for dropping the request to post the ad.
Those governmental agencies who refuse to place such controversial ads risk the potential of being named defendants in court actions.
Ever since 9-11 it’s been a battle between vengeance and vendetta vs forgiving and reconciliation, and vengeance and vendetta are winning hands down. In fact reconciliation is not even on the horizon. The politicians are driven (and driving) to sheer madness by the media frenzy and the glorification of the military/violence. This would never have happened had we dealt properly with the conflict/oppression of Israel-Palestine more than 20 years ago when the opportunity was truly golden. Dennis Kucinich proposed a Dept. of Peace but the CIA which believes in destabilization, assassination, unrest and destruction would never allow it. The paranoid National Security Bureaucracy undermines every move towards peace that any merely elected individual politicians could or would even dare to propose if they even had that kind of daring/courage. So instead we are left with throwing gasoline unto the fire as this advertising campaign demonstrates.
Looking up Haj Amin al-Husseini we find he was Mufti of Jerusalem, a post to which he was appointed by Herbert Samuel, a British colonial official considered a Zionist. And this was after Amin al-Husseini had come last in a vote for the position among Palestinians.
Yes, the Palestinian in the picture was appointed by a British Zionist after he had come last in a Palestinian election.
Why is this extremist given such publicity? i saw the interview about her objection to clean, bacteria-free, non-cruelly treated “halal” turkeys , and she really is unhinged and dangerous.
Great comment from Cide Hamete above!!
It is covered because for many it is unavoidable. People have to ride these buses and endure them as they drive by..
Part of the Hasbara Grand Plan — unending demonization of the Muslims ( with Palestinians at the forefront) to advance the Israeli narrative and to make its odious actions and policies less unpalatable.
The woman is a lunatic and her fixation on Islam is very odd. “Freedom of speech” or not, a court would have never allowed any other religious or ethnic group to be referred to as “savages.” Why us? True freedom means living life without being inundated with hate speech against our will. The problem is this lady is so twisted she thinks she is telling the truth.
She knows she isn’t telling the truth, that’s why she has to lie so damn loud.
The bus ad is ugly – no doubt about it. I’m not sure how many buses they are on, but the wording is a bad reflection on the source of the ad, not its intended message.
The last ad that was run was pulled off stations by commuters or defaced, and just as forgetfully melodramatic
I’m seeing a fantastic opportunity for our local graffiti artists to strut their stuff!