Jews against Islamophobia UPDATE

Articles from Mondoweiss and Washington Post, plus Notes and Links on all the groups cited. UPDATE: a news report about the presumed attack by Muslims on an AFDI gathering to produce cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in Dallas, Texas has been added.

Photo and caption from the American Freedom Defense Initiative*: “While our Philly free speech win is still reverberating across the country, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) won an important victory for the freedom of speech today as a federal court ruled that New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) must run its ad criticizing Hamas and Islamic antisemitism on City buses.”

Jewish groups stand in opposition to hate speech and all forms of Islamophobia

By Mondoweiss Editors
April 28, 2015

A statement from Jews Against Islamophobia Coalition:***:

Jews Against Islamophobia Coalition stands strongly in opposition to Islamophobia in all its manifestations. Most recently, the courts ruled that Pamela Geller has the right to put up her virulently anti-Muslim ads on public buses. As a community, we will make our voices heard as forcefully as we can in protest of Islamophobic hate speech.

“The minute I read Geller’s language for the ads,** I was reminded of the history of accusations of blood libel against the Jewish community that provoked, and fed into, anti-Semitism,” said Marjorie Dove Kent, executive director, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.

According to Rosalind Petchesky from Jewish Voice for Peace-New York,

These ads are bad enough in and of themselves. But, this hate speech also operates within the context of continued discriminatory surveillance of the Muslim community. And I have seen the pernicious effects this had had on Muslim and Arab students at CUNY, where I have been a professor for many years. That is why we pledge to continue our work with Muslim groups and others concerned with state-sponsored discrimination against the Muslim community.

Geller is the lead instigator and public face of a nationwide anti-Muslim ad campaign. She co-founded, with Robert Spencer, three groups designated as anti-Muslim hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), one of these groups, is the sponsor of the ads.

Geller’s ad campaigns most often explicitly link Israel with Islamophobia through images and words that smear Muslims and Palestinians. These campaigns have engendered bold and creative opposition by a wide range of communities—and this time will be no different.

JAIC calls upon the Jewish community—together with all communities– to speak out loud and clear against these bus ads and to demand the full civil and human rights of the Muslim community.

An ad from the pro-Israel American Freedom Defense Initiative is seen on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority bus. Photo by Matt Rourke/AP

‘Killing Jews is Worship’ posters will soon appear on NYC subways and buses

By Michael E. Miller, Washington Post
April 22, 2015

New Yorkers are used to aggressive advertising. Banners for breast implants. Billboards for condoms. But a federal judge’s ruling has opened the door for far more controversial posters on buses and subways across the city.

“Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah,” reads one such ad next to the image of a young man in a checkered headscarf. “That’s His Jihad. What’s yours?”

The poster is at the centre of heated legal debate over public safety and free speech. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ruled that New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) cannot stop the controversial ad from running on scores of subway cars and buses.

The MTA has argued that the ad could incite violence against Jews, but Koeltl rejected that idea.

MTA officials “underestimate the tolerant quality of New Yorkers and overestimate the potential impact of these fleeting advertisements,” he ruled. “Moreover, there is no evidence that seeing one of these advertisements on the back of a bus would be sufficient to trigger a violent reaction. Therefore, these ads — offensive as they may be — are still entitled to First Amendment protection.”

Making the case all the stranger is that the posters are not the work of an Islamist group, but rather a pro-Israel organization.

“This is a triumph for liberty and free speech,” tweeted Pamela Geller, the president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), the group that purchased the ads and sued the MTA to run them. “#freedom #victory #shariafail.”

AFDI is not your traditional free speech organization, however. The “about” section on its Web site starts out pretty straightforward, then takes a very hard turn.

Our objective is to go on the offensive when legal, academic, legislative, cultural, sociological, and political actions are taken to dismantle our basic freedoms and values. …AFDI acts against the treason being committed by national, state, and local government officials, the mainstream media, and others in their capitulation to the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, the ever-encroaching and unconstitutional power of the federal government, and the rapidly moving attempts to impose socialism and Marxism upon the American people.

The Southern Poverty Law Center considers AFDI an “anti-Muslim” hate group. This year, AFDI is organizing an inaugural Muhammad portrait contest, despite objections from Muslims who consider images of the prophet blasphemous.

Whatever you make of the group, AFDI has been remarkably successful in bringing its message to America. AFDI has filed at least nine lawsuits across the country, often against cities or their contractors that refuse to display their messages.

Those messages include a poster depicting Adolf Hitler meeting with “the leader of the Muslim world” and demanding that the United States cut off all aid to Islamic countries. “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man,” reads another AFDI poster. “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”

These posters have put AFDI on a crash course with both the MTA and Muslim advocacy groups. In 2011, the MTA refused to run the “savage” ad because it was demeaning to Muslims and Palestinians. AFDI sued, and a federal judge later ruled that MTA’s non-demeaning standard violated the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. The “savage” ads soon went up all over New York City.

Geller and David Yerushalmi, legal counsel for the AFDI and co-founder of the American Freedom Law Center whose primary aim is to combat sharia law.

AFDI’s ads have also drawn objections from Muslims. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil liberties group that promotes the rights of Muslims and better relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, launched its own public relations campaign to combat AFDI. In 2012 and 2013, CAIR ran posters in several U.S. cities promoting peaceful versions of Islam. “‘#MyJihad is to build friendships across the aisle.’ What’s yours?” But the ads never ran in New York due to a disagreement between CAIR and MTA.

My Jihad ads from the original Chicago campaign. (CAIR-Chicago)

With its echoing “What’s yours?,” AFDI’s latest and most controversial “Killing Jews” advertisement parodies CAIR’s campaign. Last summer, AFDI purchased space on 100 buses and subway cars for four of its ads. The MTA approved three of the ads but blocked the “Killing Jews” poster.

The poster attributes the “Killing Jews” quote to “Hamas MTV,” apparently a reference to the Palestinian group’s odd blend of violence and music videos. The ad also has a disclaimer at the bottom noting that it is “a paid advertisement sponsored by” AFDI and “does not imply MTA’s endorsement.”

But MTA Security Director Raymond Diaz worried that the poster would nonetheless incite violence, primarily against Jews. “What matters is not AFDI’s intent, but how the ad would be interpreted,” he wrote. The line “What is yours?” could be considered a “call to violence,” particularly because the CAIR posters it was mocking never appeared in New York. When AFDI pointed out that the exact same poster had not caused any problems in Chicago or San Francisco, Diaz argued that New York was different because it is “the prime terror target” and that the “terrorist security threat” had grown worse since 2013.
On Tuesday, however, Judge Koeltl tossed out those arguments and sided with AFDI. The ads could not reasonably be considered an incitement to violence, even if someone didn’t understand them.

“The defendants admit that the actual intention of the advertisement is not to advocate the use of force, but to parody the CAIR ‘My Jihad’ campaign and to criticize Hamas and radical Islam. However, they argue that a reasonable New Yorker would not read the advertisement this way, but would instead read it as advocating the killing of Jewish people,” Koeltl wrote. “The defendants’ theory is thoroughly unpersuasive.”

After AFDI’s victory, Geller posed for photos outside the federal courthouse while holding the “Killing Jews” advertisement.

“With our NY win, our ads will make their debut on New York buses in the coming weeks,” AFDI’s Web site promises above a “donate” button. “We want to run 100. Help us make that happen.”

But even if the ads don’t incite violence in New York City, they could overseas. Earlier this month, Egypt’s top religious authority called AFDI’s posters “racist” and issued a fatwa, or official edict, against them. “This hazardous campaign will leave the gate of confrontation and clashes wide open instead of exerting efforts towards peaceful coexistence and harmony,” according to the edict.

Hamas, the group cited on the ads, has not said whether it approves of the message.

Michael E. Miller is a foreign affairs reporter for The Washington Post. He writes for the Morning Mix news blog. Tweet him: @MikeMillerDC

Gunman in Mohammad cartoon attack in Texas monitored for years

By Reuters
May 04, 2015

Federal agents for years monitored one of the two gunmen shot dead after opening fire with assault rifles at a heavily guarded Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

Two law enforcement officials who asked not to be named identified one of the dead shooters as Elton Simpson, under surveillance since 2006 and convicted in 2010 of lying to FBI agents over his desire to join violent jihad in Somalia. The second shooter was identified as Nadir Soofi, a roommate of Simpson, according to two sources close to the investigation.

Phoenix FBI spokesman Perryn Collier confirmed agents were at the Autumn Ridge Apartments in connection with the shooting in Texas. The complex in north-central Phoenix was cordoned off and residents were evacuated for several hours in the early morning.

The shooting incident in the Dallas suburb of Garland was an echo of past attacks or threats in other Western countries against art depicting the Prophet Mohammad. In January, gunmen killed 12 people in the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in what it said was revenge for its cartoons.

Police shoot two dead at Mohammad cartoon exhibit
The latest incident unfolded on Sunday, when a car drove up behind an indoor arena in Garland, where 200 people attended an event featuring caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, portrayals considered offensive by Muslims.

Two men jumped out of the car and fired on security guards, injuring one. One police officer returned fire and killed both men in the parking lot.

Those inside the Curtis Culwell Center who had gone through heavy security to enter the event were not aware of the attack until afterward.

Police and federal agents had planned security for months ahead of the event organized by American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), a free-speech organization that is also described as a hate group, and that paid $10,000 for extra protection.

The shooters wore protective gear and had extra ammunition in their car, Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said. No bomb was found in their vehicle.

“Obviously they were there to shoot people,” Harn said at a news conference.

Referring to the police officer who used his duty pistol and killed the attackers, Harn said, “He did a good job.”

At Autumn Ridge in Phoenix, policed searched both an apartment and a white van parked outside, with its side windows broken.

Bob Kieckhafer, 54, who lives one floor above and across from the apartment that was searched, said FBI and other law enforcement in SWAT gear evacuated people in the building at 11 p.m. late Sunday and did not let them back until 4 a.m.

He said two men lived in the apartment that was being searched by authorities. He described them as “just like your next-door-neighbour type of guys.”

It was not immediately clear if both gunmen had lived in the complex, or if they shared an apartment.

WANTED TO JOIN JIHAD

Simpson, identified as one of the dead shooters, according to the two law enforcement sources, was convicted in 2010 of lying to FBI officials over discussions he had with an informant about his desire to travel to Somalia to engage in violent jihad.

According to court records, Simpson waived his right to a jury trial and was tried before then-U.S. District Judge Mary Murguia, who found him guilty of making a false statement and sentenced him to three years probation and ordered him to pay $600 in fines and penalties.

Murguia said there was insufficient evidence to conclude the false statement involved international terrorism.

The court documents say federal authorities began monitoring Simpson in 2006 because he was associated with an individual the FBI believed was trying to set up a terrorist cell in Arizona.

At one point, according to the documents, the FBI tried “unsuccessfully” to put Simpson on a U.S. government no-fly list.

ABC News said officials believed Simpson sent out tweets ahead of the attack, with the last one using the hashtag #texasattack.

Simpson’s father told ABC News his son was “always a good kid” but said they had “some very serious differences.”

“We are Americans and we believe in America,” Dunston Simpson told ABC News. “What my son did reflects very badly on my family.”

U.S. authorities were investigating possible links between the gunmen and international terrorist groups, a government source said.

A fighter for Islamic State, a militant group that has taken over large parts of Iraq and Syria, said in a tweet that “2 of our brothers just opened fire at the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) art exhibition in Texas,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based monitoring group. S.A.W. is an abbreviation for “May Allah honor him and grant him peace.”

FREE SPEECH OR HATE

The AFDI event in Garland was called “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest” and offered a $10,000 prize for the best artwork or cartoon depicting the Prophet.

Depictions of the Prophet Mohammad are considered offensive in Islam, and Western art that portrays the Prophet has angered Muslims and provoked threats and attacks from extremists.

The event featured speakers including Geert Wilders, a polarizing Dutch politician and anti-Islamic campaigner who is on an al Qaeda hit list.

The AFDI, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, has among other activities sponsored anti-Islamic advertising campaigns in transit systems across the country.

Notes and Links

*American Freedom Defense Initiative

from Wikipedia: Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) (also known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative) is an American extreme right-wing organization that has been widely described as Islamophobic. It calls itself a “human rights organization dedicated to free speech, religious liberty and individual rights.” The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists SIOA as a hate group.

The group was founded in 2010 as the US affiliate of Stop Islamisation of Europe. It has launched ad campaigns in urban public transit systems, including one in New York City opposing Park51, a Muslim community centre proposed for lower Manhattan near the World Trade Centre site.

Anders Grave Pedersen,L, Photo by London Photographs

SIOA was founded by and is led by Pamela Geller and author Robert Spencer. It is also known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI).It was founded in 2010 at the request of Anders Gravers Pedersen, the leader of Stop Islamisation of Europe, of which it is the American affiliate.

SIOA has been described as being on the extreme right of the political spectrum.

Active in Denmark and England, its motto is: “Racism is the lowest form of human stupidity, but Islamophobia is the height of common sense”

** The ad reads: Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah, see photos at top.

***Jews Against Islamophobia can be reached here, and at jewsagainstislamophobia@gmail.com.

The Jews Against Islamophobia Coalition is composed of Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and Jews Say No!