SIOA: Victory for Free Speech -- Religious Liberty Bus Ads Restored to Miami Buses

On the Wall Street Journal Marketwatch:

SIOA applauds end to 'campaign of hatred and intolerance'

MIAMI, April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI) and Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA) today announced that Miami-Dade Transit is restoring bus advertisements in defense of religious freedom that had been taken down after an anti-free speech campaign by a Hamas-linked Islamic hate group.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100421/DC91113)

Join SIOA on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=110841015612178

The CBS Outdoor bus ad company restored the ads after Miami-Dade Transit bowed to a threatened lawsuit by its attorneys David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise (the latter of the Thomas More Law Center) on behalf of SIOA executive director Pamela Geller and associate director Robert Spencer for breach of contract and infringement of their First Amendment free speech rights.

The South Florida chapter of the Hamas-linked Islamic supremacist hate group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) had pressured Miami-Dade Transit to drop SIOA's religious liberty ads, which offer aid to Muslims threatened for leaving Islam.

The SIOA ad at issue, which will now run on thirty buses, not just on the original 10 buses on which it ran originally in Miami-Dade County, stated: "Leaving Islam? Fatwa on your head? Family or community threatening you? Got questions? Get answers! RefugefromIslam.com."

SIOA has evidence that, all over the world, Muslims trying to leave Islam are regularly threatened and even murdered. Recently, apostates from Islam have been killed in Bangladesh, Chad, Somalia, and threatened with death in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, and Nigeria – as well as in Australia, Britain and the United States, where the teenage Christian convert Rifqa Bary has been threatened and victimized. Saudi Arabia also subjects apostates to capital punishment.

Yet the Executive Director of the South Florida chapter of the CAIR hate group, Muhammed Malik, made a patently false and misleading statement in a Miami Herald story about Miami-Dade Transit's capitulation to Sharia: "Islam guarantees freedom to and freedom from religion. . . . [We] reject as un-Islamic any extremist interpretation that sanctions the killing of any individual because she decided to 'leave Islam.'"

Malik's statement is explicitly contradicted by the command of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam and supreme example of conduct for the Muslim: "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him." (Bukhari 9.84.57) Contrary to Malik's claim, all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence teach that a sane adult male who leaves Islam must be killed. As pointed out above, this is not some theoretical Sharia dictate; this is extant law in every Muslim country that follows Islamic law.

Thus, the internationally renowned Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Al-Jazeera has said that "Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished…The majority of them…agree that apostates must be executed."

Ironically, the Council on American-Islamic Relations presents itself as a civil rights organization, a claim often parroted by media outlets; but in reality, CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case -- so named by the Justice Department. In this trial, the evidence demonstrated that CAIR founders Omar Ahmad and Niwad Awad (who still serves as CAIR's executive director), were present at a Hamas planning meeting in Philadelphia in 1993 where they and other Hamas operatives conspired to raise funds for Hamas and to promote jihad in the Middle East. CAIR has steadfastly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups.

Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror:

• Ghassan Elashi, founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, in 2009 received a 65-year prison sentence for funneling over $12 million from the Islamic charity known as the Holy Land Foundation to the jihad terrorist group Hamas, which is responsible for murdering hundreds of Israeli civilians
• Mousa Abu Marzook, a former CAIR official, was in 1995 designated by the U.S. government in 1995 as a "terrorist and Hamas leader." He now is a Hamas leader in Syria.
• Randall Royer, CAIR's former civil rights coordinator, in 2004 began serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding al-Qaida and the Taliban against American troops in Afghanistan and recruiting for Lashkar e-Taiba, the jihadist group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai jihad massacres.
• Bassem Khafagi, CAIR's former community relations director, was arrested for involvement with the Islamic Assembly of North America, which was linked to al-Qaida. After pleading guilty to visa and bank fraud charges, Khafagi was deported.
• Rabih Haddad, a former CAIR fundraiser, was deported for his work with the Global Relief Foundation (which he co-founded), a terror-financing organization.

In 1998 Omar Ahmad, CAIR's co-founder and longtime Board Chairman, said: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

After he received unwelcome publicity as a result of this statement, Ahmad denied saying it, several years after the fact. However, the original reporter, Lisa Gardiner of the Fremont Argus, stands by her story.

CAIR's spokesman Ibrahim Hooper once said: "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."

CAIR also defamed the leaders of FDI and SIOA, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, in its press release about the initial but short-lived success of its campaign of intimidation against the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion.

Pamela Geller, Executive Director of FDI and SIOA, is the founder and publisher of the acclaimed news and commentary blog AtlasShrugs.com. She is also a regular columnist for Andrew Breitbart's Big Government and Big Journalism, as well as for Newsmax. Geller is the author (with Robert Spencer) of the soon-to-be-released book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America (foreword by Ambassador John Bolton) (Simon & Schuster).

Pamela Geller's videoblogs ("vlogs") on a wide range of current events have won enthusiastic acclaim, as have her exclusive Atlas interviews with internationally renowned authorities on jihad, terrorism, and related issues, including John Bolton, Geert Wilders, Bat Ye'or, Ann Coulter, Mark Steyn, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Jerusalem Mayor  Uri Lupolianski, Steve Emerson, Christopher Hitchens, Natan Sharansky, and many others. (Videos of many of these interviews are available at AtlasShrugs.com.) She routinely confers with leading scholars on the Middle East, Islam, Eurabia, China and Russia.

Geller has broken numerous important stories -- notably the questionable sources of some of the financing of the Obama campaign. Her articles /op-eds have also been published in The Washington Times, Big Government, The American Thinker, Newsmax, Human Events, Israel National News, World Net Daily, Front Page Magazine, Big Journalism, New Media Journal, Big Hollywood, and Canada Free Press, among other publications.

Geller began her publishing career at The New York Daily News and subsequently took over operation of The New York Observer as Associate Publisher. She has made appearances on Hannity and Red Eye on the Fox News channel, and made a highly praised appearance on the Joy Behar Show in February 2010. She is a frequent guest on talk radio and has regular segments on two radio shows, The Jaz McKay Show and Jamie Allman In the Morning. She speaks regularly to organizations, synagogues and groups across this nation. Geller was a featured speaker at the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Restoration Weekend in 2009.

Robert Spencer is a highly acclaimed expert on Islam and Sharia, the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and the author of ten books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). Spencer is a weekly columnist for Human Events and FrontPage Magazine, and has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army's Asymmetric Warfare Group, the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the U.S. intelligence community.

Spencer has also written eleven monographs and well over three hundred articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism. His work has been translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, German, Czech, Portuguese, Finnish, and Bahasa Indonesia. His articles on Islam and other topics have appeared in the New York Post, the Washington Times, the Dallas Morning News, Canada's National Post, Middle East Quarterly, AtlasShrugs.com, First Things, National Review, and many other journals.

Spencer has appeared on the BBC TV, CNN, FoxNews, PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, C-Span, and France24, as well as on numerous radio programs including Bill O'Reilly's Radio Factor, The Laura Ingraham Show, Bill Bennett's Morning in America, Michael Savage's Savage Nation, The Michael Reagan Show, and The Sean Hannity Show. He has been a featured speaker at Dartmouth College, Stanford University, New York University, Brown University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Virginia, and many other colleges and universities.

SIOA is one of America's foremost organizations defending human rights, religious liberty, and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the United States.

SOURCE Stop the Islamization of America

Comments

[submitmya55]

This article is exactly why we must accept Latinos into our American lifestyle and forget about sending them back-Point?- THEY ARE CATHOLIC!!!!The moozlem's second worst enemy after the jews.

[Fight-4-Freedom]

Where did all the post from earlier go?

[billienellie]

someone erased my posts,guess somebody is pissed at us.
This is my last post here.

[Fight-4-Freedom]

WOW!!! This is the fruits of your labors (Pamela and Robert) and long overdue.
Bill; I beleive you made the same mistake I did. This is a whole new article and a huge one at that.

This is a shining example of perseverance.

This is a big brick out of the wall of acceptance by the mainstream media that this site Atlas shrugs, Jihad Watch and SIOA are not "Hate Sites."
Theres still a lot of Americans out there who are clueless to Islam and its true goal, and need to know the facts.

But today, WE should all be proud of the accomplishment acheived by Robert and Pamela through their tireless efforts for our freedoms

[steve]

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. This is ONE touchdown. The game is long. No letup. My football coaches always talked about controlled, sustained fury. God bless Pamela and Robert and actually ALL the voices heard here. Our numbers are growing. Bill Norris please don't go................

[Jane]

Congratulations Pam & Robert. Your courageous and tireless efforts are paying off. Thank you for everything you do.

[Richard]

This is an absolutely fantastic piece of press!!! All of it true of course, and though many will think its message extremely right wing - to my taste it's perfectly balanced. All of the information was already known to me, but to see it presented outside of the blogosphere caught my attention big-time.

It reads like one of my favorite blogs, can these words really be coming from the MSM? So I hit the link and it looks like this really is the Wall Street Journal, albeit some slightly obscure edition. Can we expect more of this turning of the tide? Is this the result of fighting lawfare with lawfare - and winning?

All I can say is I love it. No I can say more than that. I give generously to the NRA, in its various forms (ILA, PVF, CRPA) and they bring it in by showing great success in protecting Constitutional freedoms. SIOA and FDI are similarly begining to build an impressive scorecard in this regard already. The 501c will help I think, but it's worth keeping mindful that donations made through jihadwatch will be deductible now. While fantastic folks like Yershalmi and the TM law center may work pro bono, I'm sure it will be much easier for them to give of their time in future battles if their expenses are able to be offset.

First the legal victory (in spades I may add) and now positive press from sort-of MSM. I love it when things go right.

[Nelson Abdullah]

Many thanks to Pamela and Atlas for posting the original story and the email address for the Miami-Dade Transit official. I sent this woman the following message:

From: Nelson Abdullah
To: kdamian@miamidade.gov
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 4:23 PM
Subject: Regarding the Leaving Islam bus ads

Dear Ms. Damian,

I live in Independence, Kentucky which is about 120 miles south of Columbus, Ohio where a young girl named Rifqa Bary lives in fear of her life because she left her Muslim family after converting to Christianity. Rifqa's family attend services at the American Islamic Waqf Noor Mosque in Dublin, Ohio. There is a web site in Ohio that has documented the number of radical Muslim pro-terrorists associated with this mosque. You can view this information at their web site Ohio Against Terrorism: http://ohioagainstterror.blogspot.com/search/label/Noor%20Center .

I know full well that the ads placed on the buses in Miami-Dade county that say: ``Fatwa on your head? Is your community or family threatening you?'' carry a genuine, truthful message.

The Noor Mosque in Dublin, Ohio preaches Islamic Sharia Law, a barbaric set of rules that calls for extreme punishment for everyday offenses. In every Muslim community around the world Sharia Law is the driving force behind what is called Honor Killings but it is the women and children under Sharia Law, treated as nothing more than chattel, who bear the brunt of it. Sharia Law says any member of a Muslim family may kill a member of the family for doing something that brings dishonor. Remember Salman Rushdie? After he wrote The Satanic Verses, a controversial book on the Quran, the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwā calling on all Muslims to kill him any where in the world. Sharia Law says ANY Muslim anywhere may kill another Muslim if a fatwā has been issued and such a fatwā was issued at Al-Azhar University in Cairo for death to apostates.

Honor Killings are happening in America. James A. Larry, an ex-con who became a Muslim while in prison, killed his pregnant wife, infant son and two nieces in Chicago this week because they would not follow his Muslim faith. The wife’s sister, Shirina Thompson, said James Larry had been talking about "going to Allah". A neighbor in Wisconsin said the man had fought with his wife in recent days because she refused to wear Muslim garb.

Yaser Said murdered his two daughters in an honor killing in Lewisville, Texas. Chaudhry Rashid murdered his daughter in an honor killing in Jonesboro, Georgia.

Then there was Muzzammil Hassan the founder of Muslim TV Network Bridges TV in Buffalo, New York. He received an award April 7, 2007, from CAIR-Pennsylvania at its first annual banquet, a fundraiser at the Hilton Philadelphia. CAIR-PA Chairman Iftekhar Hussain and CAIR National Chairman Parvez Ahmed presented the award to Hassan. Muzzammil Hassan beheaded his wife Aasiya Hassan, 37, on Feb. 12, 2009 at their TV studio.

Ms. Damian, you and the Miami-Dade County government have done a great disservice to Muslims living in Florida.

Regards,
Nelson Abdullah

[miira]

Pam - when this all started, you made a request in your post titled, WE ARE SUING MIAMI-DADE TRANSIT! Help Us fight!:

" David Yerushalmi, P.C. (sharia legal expert) and The Thomas More Law center will handle this matter as fully pro bono. Baruch Hashem! But there are costs involved. I am asking Atlas readers, SIOA and FDI supporters to please donate to the legal fund. Please. Yerushalmi does not raise funds from the public like TMLC, so any funds I can raise to offset his costs allows him to do more of these.

We need to do this. People who want a tax deduction can send their checks to: Society of Americans for National Existence (or just SANE) P.O.B. 6358 Chandler Ariz 85246 Re: FDI Legal Defense Fund Attached is SANE’s IRS letter: Download 501c3IRSAcceptanceLtr" If you prefer to donate online: Paypal your donation to director@jihadwatch.org

Victory is sweet BUT it can be expensive. I assume this request remains open to cover costs of anticipated battles, and perhaps should be included in posts regarding these efforts.

Mazel Tov on this wonderful & immediate success to all involved and all who support these efforts.

[Fight-4-Freedom]

WOW! Nelson great email. Way to go!!!!!

[Richard]

OT but I think related.

I just opened a letter from Martin Mawyer's CAN, whom I also support (Christian Action Network, producers of the film Homegrown Jihad). It looks like the state of Maine lost in court to Martin. Related because Martin's is another big, big victory in the fight against Islamisation and creeping sharia.

Link hunting...minute...
http://www.christianaction.org/can-wins-legal-battle-against-maine.aspx

More great, freedom-loving news in the same day!

[sheik yer'mami]

This is big!

Congrats. But nothing less could or should have been the outcome of this pathetic display of dhimmitude from the Miami bus company.

Now, this should be all over the lame stream media. Where is Bill chickenshit O'Reilly? Where is Greta van Schlockeren and Geraldo the blow-boy?

Just goes to show: we haven't even scratched the surface!

[Joy]

The lesson here is to "Never give in, never give up - and never again!!" This mantra from Larry, author/director of NoLeftturnz, a great conservative website that is a fearless watchdog of all forces that threaten individual liberty and basic human rights.

The other lesson - related, of course - is that the fearless leadership of Pamela and Robert should be beacons, standards and an inspiration to all of us that by NOT sitting down and shutting up (as Sarah Palin keeps reminding us), we are forcing "them" to hear our message and face the true facts, ma'am! I, for one, even among my quiet and low-key circle of friends, continue to speak up when I hear political nonsense about so-called "Islamophobia" being invoked. But we must recognize that, for the most part, we do indeed have many people already in our camp. Few among my friends - albeit quiet and not at all outspoken politically - are very, if at all, sympathetic to Islam and the Muslim religion. They are vaguely disapproving; so, it's our responsibility to "fill in those gaps of knowledge and understanding" about Radical Islam. Alluding to stealth Jihad and creeping Shar'ia - here in the USA - is a safe, solid and useful first step in opening up that conversation. There are SO many terrible facts about Radical Islam that need to be exposed, discussed and used as the basis for further inspiration in this battle to defeat the Islamifornication of American and the putrid PC atmosphere that nourishes it.

[lilredbird]

Just sent my contribution. SIOA is truly off to a flying start!

[Middle of a Cornfield]

Pamela - Congratulations to you and SIOA! I hope the ad has a long run! I live in the Chicago suburbs and with the help of our idiot Planning Commissions and politicians CAIR is infiltrating our communities -- even Money magazine's "Best Town" of Naperville. http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/2175806,6_1_NA20_MUSLIM_S1-100420.article
Everyday on my way to work at O'Hare airport I pass one of CAIR's billboards (the same as you have posted) on I-294.
The month before 9-11 in almost the same spot on I-294 the PLO had a billboard up - by 9-14 it had disappeared. Susan

[Fight-4-Freedom]

I'll be keeping a close eye on the news sites today. I'm curious as to the response this news will receive.

[Blanco]

I am still a-quiver with happiness! Thank you thank you thank you Pamela (& Robert & Frank & attorneys). Pamela you have more gumption in your pinky finger than most people have in their whole bodies! You're awesome!

[RobB]

Congratulations.

[Jewel]

Congratulations Pamela and Robert!

I am continuing my prayers for your safety and success.

God bless you and God Bless the USA.