The advertisement:
"In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel/Defeat Jihad,"
(See http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=5835 )
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Metropolitan Transportation Authority banned the advertisement by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, claiming the ad violated the Authority's policy against "demeaning language."
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 ad promoter was entitled to the "highest level of protection under the First Amendment."
According to Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, "It's like the anti-Islam film that is creating controversy. It is designed to offend, designed to provoke."
QUESTION: How is equating savagery with jihad anti-Muslim?
Are all Muslims jihadists?
That has to be a reasonable person's assumption based on the CAIR spokesperson's statement.
What is "demeaning" about the advertisement to Muslims?
Again, if the ad is "demeaning" to Muslims, the obvious suggestion is that all Muslims are savage jihadists.
By their acts we have proof that the jihadists are savages: the recent attacks on embassies and (in Israel) consulates - since the U.S. presidents have so far ignored Congress' instruction to relocate the embassy from Tel Av iv to Jerusalem - and the resent attack on a kosher market in France (why a kosher market - an Egyptian Coptic made the film the Muslims don't like and the magazine the Muslims dislike is not a Jewish publication). Never mind the rocket attacks on Israel, the suicide murders in Israel and elsewhere, and the bombings and attempted bombings of aircraft. Ignore, too, September 11, 2001.
Granted, "savages" is a relative word.
By Western standards, the jihadists' acts are savagery. But by Muslim standards, ahh, here we have the issue.
Different mentalities.
Worse, Western politicians bow to the alter of "Political Correctness," never calling a spade a spade - or a jihadists a savage.
I have railed in the past about the silence of the "good" Muslims; the ones who after each atrocity remain silent, not condemning the act but, by their silence, condoning it.
Now, thanks to the CAIR spokesperson, I know that all Muslims must by definition be jihadists, else why would CAIR object to equating "jihadists" - not "Muslims," but only "jihadists" - as "savages.
Tarred and feathered by their own words.
If I was a Jew in Bloomberg's New York I think I would be extra cautious and demand a police escort when I went to services on Shabat and Yom Kippor (since in Bloomberg's New York only criminals - including jihadists - are allowed to have guns).
