The NY Times puts their special spin on the dueling jihad campaigns -- AFDI's real jihad campaign vs Hamas-CAIR's bizarro fiction campaign. Such slick deception. Counter the lies: buy a bus. Contribute to AmericanFreedomDefense@aol.com.
Larry S comments:
More shallow reporting from the Grey Lady. What total twaddle the has-been New York Times leaves unchallenged. Where to start in this target-rich environment? In the video, Ahmed Rehab is allowed to utter the totally deceptive words, "extremists have tarnished the meaning of jihad ...". The NYT allows that garbage to pass without comment, instead of exposing it as the monumental fraud that it is. Jihad as violent aggression to spread the umma is as old as Islam itself, and is embedded and embraced in Islamic holy scriptures from the inception of the cult. Oh, and while you're at it, grab as much loot and as many infidel slave girls as you can. That is not simply a extreme fringe of Islam: it is history repeated. Try this one on for size, Ahmed, from Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, the 10th century Islamic scholar of the Maliki school: Jihad is a precept of Divine institution. Its performance by certain individuals may dispense others from it. We Malikis maintain that it is preferable not to begin hostilities with the enemy before having invited the latter to embrace the religion of Allah except where the enemy attacks first. They have the alternative of either converting to Islam or paying the poll tax (jizya), short of which war will be declared against them. [Ref. 1] Far from being an “extremist” take on Islam, jihad as holy war of subjugation against the infidel is mainstream Islam, and always has been. Mr. Rehab is a thoroughly disingenuous individual, but the NYT eats up his pabulum like candy. Mr. Rehab also claims Pamela is “someone who wants to agitate just like he did.” Hmmm, Ahmed, even if I grant that Pamela “agitates” (well I rather hope she agitates you), Bin-Ladin is not known primarily for his “agitation”, and I don’t recall Pamela murdering thousands of non-combatants or exhorting her supporters to do the same, as Bin-Ladin did. No, Ahmed, for your effort to calumniate Pamela by drawing a false parallel between her and a mass murderer, you are not only disingenuous, you are a thoroughly despicable person. But the NYT times treats Rehab’s words with respect, and leaves them unchallenged. It is clear obfuscation on the part of the fishwrap of record, even edging toward endorsing propaganda of the most insidious type. The New York Times ill-serves the cause of truth and renders more difficult the task of defending the United States of America and the civilization on which it is (was?) based. Ref. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_of_Islamic_scholars_on_Jihad
Read the whole thing here. NY Times video below.
by Steve Yaccino and Poh Si Teng, New York Times, March 6, 2013
Defining Jihad: On public buses and subway, two groups battle to define the word jihad.
CHICAGO — There is an advertising war being fought here — not over soda or car brands but over the true meaning of the word “jihad.”
Ahlam Mahmood, a native of Iraq now living in Chicago, took part in an advertising campaign that promotes a peaceful meaning of the word “jihad.”
Backing a continuing effort that has featured billboards on the sides of Chicago buses, the local chapter of a national Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has been promoting a nonviolent meaning of the word — “to struggle” — that applies to everyday life.
Supporters say jihad is a spiritual concept that has been misused by extremists and inaccurately linked to terrorism, and it is determined to reclaim that definition with the ad campaign, called My Jihad.
“My jihad is to stay fit despite my busy schedule,” says a woman in a head scarf lifting weights in an ad that started running on buses in December. “What’s yours?”
But last month another set of ads, with a far different message, started appearing on buses here.
![DSC_0211[1]](http://featherfiles.aviary.com/2013-03-01/f77694d11/35d5beb077da40f2a9cf5140c2fecfc5_hires.png "DSC_0211[1]")
Mimicking the My Jihad ads, they feature photos and quotations from figures like Osama bin Laden and Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in 2010. “Killing Jews is worship that draws us closer to Allah,” says one ad, attributing the quotation to a Hamas television station. They end with the statement: “That’s his jihad. What’s yours?”
The leader of the second ad campaign, Pamela Geller, executive director of the pro-Israel group American Freedom Defense Initiative, has criticized the original My Jihad ads as a “whitewashed version” of an idea that has been used to justify violent attacks around the world.
“The fact that some Muslims don’t associate jihad with violence does not cancel out that so many do,” Ms. Geller said. “I will go toe-to-toe in this matter because it’s an attempt to disarm the American people.”
The debate started last year when Ms. Geller’s organization submitted a pro-Israel advertisement for the New York subway system that used the word “savage” to describe opponents of the Jewish state, stirring outrage in Muslim communities.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority rejected the ads, citing its policy against “demeaning” language, but a federal judge overruled the agency, saying it had violated the group’s First Amendment rights.
The signs went up in September and read: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”
Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago office, said he was surprised that the New York case focused only on the word “savage,” not jihad — an indication, he said, that the Muslim community needed to be more active about promoting a more peaceful interpretation of its beliefs.
“Unfortunately we have witnessed in front of our very eyes a central tenet of our faith essentially become tarnished,” Mr. Rehab said of the controversy, adding, “I was tired of hearing fathers tell their children, you know, ‘Don’t say jihad over the phone. Don’t say jihad in public.’ ”
He took to Facebook, posting a childhood story about his bedridden grandmother, who had once described coping with her ailing health as “my jihad.” He started raising money, held meetings in living rooms and started the campaign in December with ads that ran on 25 buses in Chicago. The ads have since spread to buses and subway billboards in San Francisco and Washington.
“Loving a challenge, loving a jihad if you will, I wanted to take this on,” Mr. Rehab said.
David Cook, professor of Islamic studies at Rice University, said the term jihad had for centuries been associated with “God-sanctioned violence,” but that progressive Muslim groups have been talking about peaceful interpretations since the late 1800s. While he was unaware of other public relations campaigns focusing on the word jihad before Mr. Rehab’s, Professor Cook said the push fit into a larger concerted effort by Muslim groups to explain aspects of their religion to the broader American public since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The word has shown up regularly in anti-Muslim posts on Ms. Geller’s blog, Atlas Shrugs. An outspoken activist, she is perhaps best known for opposing the building of a mosque and Islamic cultural center near ground zero in New York. At the time, Ms. Geller accused leaders of the project of being “stealth jihadists,” a favorite phrase.
When Mr. Rehab’s campaign began with a Web site, Myjihad.org, Ms. Geller bought the domain name Myjihad.us. After Mr. Rehab sent a cease-and-desist letter claiming copyright infringement, Ms. Geller altered her ad designs slightly, changing the color and a few words. Her ads went up on 10 Chicago buses in late February.
Ms. Geller has called her campaign an attempt to show “the reality of jihad and the root causes of terrorism from the words of jihadists themselves.” She is also not shy about her suspicions of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as CAIR, which has been a target of scrutiny from Congressional Republicans in the past.
While CAIR’s Chicago chapter has helped support the project, Mr. Rehab said My Jihad was established as its own nonprofit, with fund-raising and volunteers that are independent from the national Muslim organization.
Beyond the legal maneuverings, it is the tenor of Ms. Geller’s advertisements that has drawn the sharpest criticism.
“It’s a further message of intolerance, furthering the flames that are currently out there between all different communities,” said Lonnie Nasatir, Midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Heidi Beirich, who tracks hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has listed Ms. Geller’s blog since 2009, said her ads subscribe “bad motives to all Muslims.”
“It’s rejecting the idea that American Muslims can have different interpretations of their religion,” she said.
At a photo shoot last month, on the 15th floor of a skyscraper in downtown Chicago, volunteers posing for My Jihad advertisements spoke briefly about their individual struggles. For some children, it was bullies at school. One man said he wanted to lose weight. An Iraqi refugee had started a new life as a single mother in America. Those ads are expected to be released in the next couple of months, though no dates or locations have been set.
Ms. Geller, whose ads went up in Washington this week and are scheduled to appear on buses in San Francisco on Monday, said that she was willing to buy more around the country if she felt it was necessary, and that she had no intention of backing down any time soon.
“I’ll be honest with you,” she said. “If CAIR is running them longer, I will run them longer.”
