Delta dawn, what's that flower you got on? I thought that Atlas readers, AFDI and SIOA members and freedom lovers alike would get a real charge out of the latest drama with the Queen of Drama, Ahmed Rehab of CAIR Chicago.
There is a very real and concerted effort to keep our AFDI counter-CAIR campaign off buses not just in Chicago, but across the country. Here is the latest devastating riposte from our ace lawyer, David Yerushalmi of AFLC, to the bogus lawsuit Islamic supremacists are threatening to try to keep our ads from running:
Subject: RE: AFDI v Chicago TransitDear Ms. Seimetz:
Pursuant to our telephone conversation, this email represents our client's formal response to the issues raised by Mr. Persoon's letter to my client and copied to the CTA's General Counsel office (and others) and dated January 15, 2013. This email will also address in short the First Amendment issues we discussed.
First, Mr. Persoon's letter is factually and legally incorrect in almost all respects. But I will respond directly to Mr. Persoon in due course and will demand a retraction of his claims. I will copy you on that communication.
But, there is only one point I wish to make here on the substance of Mr. Persoon's somewhat fatuous epistle. He notes that my client registered myjihad.us on December 14, 2012. Note the date of incorporation of Mr. Persoon's client's organization MYJIHAD INC. on the attached screen shot from the Illinois Sec. of State: December 18, 2012. It would be the queer law indeed that permitted a subsequent incorporation to affect the title and use by my client of a website name she owned in advance. Indeed, my client, following Mr. Persoon's logic, has a claim for trade dress infringement against Mr. Persoon's client.
Second, and more the point, my client has altered the ads so that there can be absolutely no claim for IP infringement. The color scheme is no longer the same. "This is my jihad..." has been substantially altered so that it is both different and obviously critical of "my jihad" and thus also Fair Use.
The source of the ad is clearly identified as my client's organization.
Should CTA not run this ad based upon Mr. Persoon's letter or any subsequent claim, we will initiate a federal claim against the CTA, Mr. Persoon, and his client. If CTA runs the ad and Mr. Persoon sues on behalf of his client, rest assured AFLC, on behalf of our client, will counterclaim against Mr. Persoon and his client for abuse of federal trademark law.
Third, let me address the First Amendment issue we discussed on the telephone. My client is exercising classic speech in a public forum and in direct response to prior speech the CTA permitted. My client's speech does not call for violence nor is violence a likely or imminent response from those in the audience. To the extent that those in the audience who oppose my client's viewpoint might respond violently, the Supreme Court has spoken loudly on this issue: the First Amendment does not countenance a heckler's veto. Moreover, with all of the ads my client has run across the country, there has been no violence. Have criminals vandalized a few of the ads? Yes. But those are criminals and our First Amendment does not censor your speech, my speech, or my client's out of a fear of what criminals may or may not do.
Finally, as I noted, my client will not alter all or any one of the ads as now proposed. It is these ads or it is litigation. Thank you.
David Yerushalmi
American Freedom Law Center℠
Here's the backstory.
Hamas-CAIR developed a new propaganda ad campaign, a psyop, that kicked off on Chicago buses. #MyJihad is a deceptive bus ad campaign designed to distract from and obscure the true meaning of jihad. See details here: Hamas-linked CAIR applies cosmetics to the concept of jihad.
Local Muslim Launches Campaign To 'Reclaim' Meaning of 'Jihad' Chicagoist
CAIR-Chicago executive director Ahmed Rehab, who's behind the campaign, told the Sun-Times the term "jihad" has been twisted by groups such as Geller's so that its true meaning is obscured and the word is most closely associated with "holy war." ...
The Islamic supremacists of Hamas-CAIR say that their MyJihad campaign is designed to respond to our Quran ad, and to fight “bigotry” and “Islamophobia,” but in fact the real bigotry, the real hatred, is coming from devout Muslim jihad terrorists around the world every day: over 20,000 jihad attacks since 9/11, each one with the imprimatur of a Muslim cleric.
And so we countered. We created a jihad campaign speaking to the true meaning of jihad.
These are all actual quotes:
Our new campaign focuses on how jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism. It uses actual quotes by jihadis and Islamic supremacists including Osama bin Laden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as statements from Hamas TV and one of the victims of the Fort Hood jihad massacre. This usage of jihad is much more influential and widespread among Muslims worldwide than the benign and whitewashed understanding of it being pushed by Hamas-linked CAIR, and the fact that some Muslims don’t think of jihad as involving violence does not cancel out the fact that many do. Our AFDI campaign shines the light of truth to break through the fog of CAIR’s deceptions.
So what did CAIR do? They commenced legal action in their jihad against free speech. Read their lawyer's letter here. Yes, now CAIR claims to own #myjihad despite the fact that I registered myjihad.us four days days earlier. Hey, Delta Dawn, you owe me money!
Full disclosure: I tweaked the ads because I wanted them up and they don't. They will never win this lawsuit. But they can try to tie us up for at least a year. It is obvious to me that Hamas-CAIR and Chicago Transit are in collusion.They are working together. Understand, I submitted the ads on the 14th of December. I didn't hear back for six weeks, despite the fact that I inquired repeatedly. But on the day I received the email from Gypsy Rose Lee's (photo above) lawyer (aren't cosmetics haram?), the CTA rejected our ads, citing that legal letter not five minutes later. San Francisco then followed suit. This is how egregious our free speech rights are being violated.
I tweaked the ads because I want them to run quickly-- below:
