This Reuters report on the brouhaha over my ads says this: "Pamela Geller, who heads the American Freedom Defense Initiative, could not immediately be reached for comment. In July, she called the judge's ruling 'a great victory' for free speech."
In reality, Edith Honan of Reuters sent this to me Wednesday evening: "Hi Pam, Are you commenting about the MTA’s announcement it will allow the American Freedom Defense Initiative’s ad up in 10 station starting Monday? Some are saying the timing is bad, given the riots in Libya and Afghanistan. Do you have anything to say about that?"
I "could not immediately be reached for comment"? I sent her back this that same evening:
The reaction this campaign may elicit is not up to me. No one controls someone else's reactions. If someone commits violence, it is his responsibility and no one else's. If I hit you because of your biased coverage, that doesn't make your coverage worse than it was already. The responsibility for one's actions lies with those who act and no one else. Islamic supremacists and their allies in the mainstream media are trying to get us to accept the idea that we are responsible if Muslims riot and kill and blame what we say. Yet there is nothing that you could say to me that would make me riot and kill. Theirs is the responsibility and they are the only ones who deserve condemnation, if the media were doing its job. There will always be an ad, a movie, a cartoon, a teddy bear. This is a war on freedom. I refuse to sacrifice my freedom so as not to offend savages.
"Ads criticizing 'Jihad' bound for New York City subway stations" by Edith Honan, Reuters, Wed, Sep 19
"The Prophet Mohammad? Apparently Edith Honan is a Muslim.NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Muslim countries reverberate with fierce protests over a film mocking the Prophet Mohammad, an ad equating Islamic jihad with savagery is due to appear next week in 10 New York City subway stations despite transit officials' efforts to block it.
The city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority had refused the ads, citing a policy against demeaning language. The American Freedom Defense Initiative, which is behind the ad campaign, then sued and won a favorable ruling from a U.S. judge in Manhattan.According to court documents, the ad reads: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel/Defeat Jihad."
MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said the ads would be displayed starting on Monday, but he could not say at which stations.
"Our hands are tied. The MTA is subject to a court ordered injunction that prohibits application of the MTA's existing no-demeaning ad standard," said Donovan.
In July, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that the ad was protected speech. While agreeing with the MTA that the ad was "demeaning a group of people based on religion," Engelmayer ruled that the group was entitled to the "highest level of protection under the First Amendment."
The American Freedom Defense Initiative gained notoriety when it opposed creation of a Muslim community center near the site of the Twin Towers, which were destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Pamela Geller, who heads the American Freedom Defense Initiative, could not immediately be reached for comment. In July, she called the judge's ruling "a great victory" for free speech.
Ibrahim Hooper, the spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, urged the MTA to donate any proceeds it collects to a "cause that promotes mutual understanding."
"It's like the anti-Islam film that is creating controversy. It is designed to offend, designed to provoke," Hooper said of the New York ad campaign.
Honan, like all other dhimmi journalist tools, doesn't mention that CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist funding trial in our nation’s history. They were named as a Muslim Brotherhood group. They’re a Hamas group in America. The first paragraph of Hamas' charter calls for the annihilation of Israel. They’re a subversive group whose stated goal, according to an internal captured document in the Holy Land trial, is "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within."
But if Edith Honan thought I couldn't be reached for comment, she probably couldn't find any of that, either.
