The NY subway ads that equate Jihad with savagery BBC September 24 2012
A group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative has paid for adverts declaiming jihad (see picture) to be put up on the NY subway. Pamela Geller, who heads the organisation, went to court to get her message across -- The New York transport authority had initially refused to do so. But last month, a US District Court Judge ruled that she was protected under the First Amendment, which provides for freedom of religion and of expression. The ads will be displayed, across New York's subway, for a month.
I brought Pamela Geller together with Qasim Rashid of the Ahmadiya Muslim Community of the USA. I began by asking Pamela Geller who she meant by "the savage"
I didn't realize until halfway through my interview that my adversary was an Ahmadi Muslim. How ridiculous.
Ahmadis are not considered real Muslims by Muslims. They are persecuted, oppressed and slaughtered in Muslim countries, but this Ahmadi wants to debate ....me. Nuts.
The Ahmadi movement (Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama') was created March 23, 1889. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims and claim to practice Islam, but mainstream Muslims do not consider Ahmadis to be Muslims, citing in particular the Ahmadiyya viewpoint on the death and return of Jesus, the Ahmadiyya concept of Jihad in a peaceful format and the community’s view of Muhammad. In several Islamic countries today Ahmadis have been marginalised by the majority religious community; severe persecution and often systematic oppression have led many Ahmadis to emigrate and settle elsewhere (source)
The Ahmadiyya are a fraction of the ummah (worldwide Muslim community) and are despised by Islam. Members of the Ahmadiyya are the victims of systematic oppression, persecution and slaughter in Muslim countries. In other words, they are perceived to be non-believers or "hypocrites." So while this is a lovely idea, it is meaningless. It does not address jihad and the ideology that inspires Islamic imperialism, antisemitism and hatred for all non-Muslims. In Pakistan they are prohibited by law from self-identifying as Muslims. (more here)
