Check out the coverage across the pond. "Anti-Muslim." So SKY News is saying all Muslims are jihadists. Wow. The Hamas group in America (CAIR) is cited in every article, but nowhere mentioned is their unindicted co-conspirator status, so named in the largest Hamas funding trial in US history, or that they were identified as a Muslim Brotherhood group in America. That is not relevant? Shouldn't readers know who and what they are?
"Anti-Muslim Adverts To Run In New York Subway"
The controversial leader of the group behind the adverts says she believes that America is at risk from some Muslims.
Hannah Thomas-Peter, New York Correspondent, SKY NewsThe head of a group that has won its fight to run controversial adverts in New York subway stations referring to some Muslims as "savage" has told Sky News that she will fight "to the death" for the right to offend people.
Pamela Geller runs the American Freedom Defence Initiative (AFDI), which has taken out ads that read: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."
The posters are due to appear in ten New York City subway stations next week.
They were initially rejected by the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) because of the use of demeaning language.
But in July, a Manhattan court judge ruled that this was a violation of the first amendment rights of the AFDI and they should be allowed to run.
Ms Geller told Sky News that she was unconcerned the ads might make the subway network a target for violence.
She said: "Were there similar ads on the London buses and trains on 7/7? You know there weren't.
"I will not abridge my freedoms so as not to offend savages.
"I won't take responsibility for other people being violent.
"I live in America and in America we have the first amendment."
Ms Geller, who is a prominent supporter of Israel, stressed that she was not referring to all Muslims as savages, only those who engaged in what she characterises as "Jihad".
She believes that America is under threat from some Muslims who wish to impose Sharia law on the country, and her group has launched similar campaigns before.
The release of the adverts coincides with widespread anger in parts of the Middle East over an anti-Muslim film made in the US and released on the internet.
Next week, heads of state from all over the world will be converging on the city amid heightened security for the UN General Assembly.
The Washington DC MTA has deferred the placement of the controversial ads "out of concern for public safety, given current world events".
But New York MTA Transportation spokesman Aaron Donovan said: "Our hands are tied."
There had been some suggestions that the city's transit body was trying to find a way to stop the adverts appearing.
However, another spokesperson for the MTA told Sky News that it appeared the ads are definitely going ahead, although he was unable to say on which day, and at which subway stations.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, told Sky News: "Our basic position is that the first amendment means that everyone is free to be a bigot or even an idiot like Pamela Geller.
"We wish she wasn't provoking and inciting hatred, but in America that's her right.
"We encourage Muslims to exercise the same right to publicly denounce such adverts.
"The real danger is the spread of hatred in our society, which can lead to attacks on innocent people."
UPDATE: A righteously indignant reader writes:
Dear Pam,
Here's a letter I wrote to The Sun News, upon reading the article about your ad, Pam. Old News to You by now, but important to me. I also posted it (mostly) on your web page. The problem is for the public to get hold of email addresses for the media people who do damage.
"To Adam Harding, Lucy Ellison, Charlotte Reed:
Please forward to Hannah, as I was unable to get her proper email address:
I have just read 2 articles by Hannah Thomas-Peter, Sky News' New York Correspondent, and was quite surprised and displeased. I take issue with Ms. Thomas-Peter's tone, bias, and dearth of research on the article entitled: "Anti-Muslim Ads to Run in New York Subway."
The immediate impression upon reading this article is that Ms. Geller must be irresponsible to put up ads such as this upon the heels of the current demonstrations of sharia. Did the writer of the article realize that Ms. Geller began this effort months ago, and it has been delayed by the city of New York?
The second impression is that she is aggressive in pursuing her goal. No mention is made that it is in response to previous ads by CAIR.
Ms. Geller is disrespected by members of CAIR, whom Ms. Thomas-Peter did interview and quote, but not by most Americans, who agree that fanatical Islamacists are promoting murder and jihad in both our countries, indeed, around the world. I see no interviews with like-minded people horrified by what Islamacists are doing to Christian, Jews, and their own people.
Ms. Geller is one who is brave enough to face Islamacist's fatwas, e.g. this one:
1. http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/political-potpourri/2012/sep/18/fatwa-issued-muslim-cleric-against-participants-an/
or this one:
2. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/16/salman-rushdie-death- ; fatw_n_1888111.htmlone,
I'm sure The Sun has many more they can peruse.
Or, perhaps you and Ms. Thomas-Peter should actually go to Ms. Geller's website:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/
and educate yourselves. Perhaps you should actually even share that information with your readers.
I perceive Geller's goal as the only ethical one stemming from awareness of the atrocities occurring across the globe in the name of Islam, i.e.: to educate about sharia and jihad, which can only lead to a desire to speak out against the torturing, rape and murders committed in the name of Islam.
Since you did not research and include this side of the topic, your article is biased. The tone is negative, supercilious, and harmful to your viewers since your coverage was insufficient to explain the cause of Ms. Geller's anguish and desire to have freedom of speech to express it. Surely you yourselves have felt the same upon viewing the photos of our Ambassador Stevens recently.
From reading your writer's previously posted article about Bloomberg's soda ban, I can see that she is capable of fair, neutral writing. She just was incapable of it here --of all places and of all times. I highly recommend a conscientious follow-up article to clarify the reason for blogs such as Atlas Shrugged.
Or do you each lack the courage of one like Ms. Geller, the French cartoonist currently in the news, or others who put themselves in harms' way in order to alert the public to the danger of sharia?
I would appreciate an answer, which I will share with Ms. Geller and others.
Very Sincerely,
Barbara
Upland, California
cc: P. Geller"
