NY bus ad showing mosque, burning Twin Towers OK'd

[cory777]

Source: AP

New York City's transit agency has approved a bus advertisement that depicts a plane flying toward the World Trade Center's towers as they burn along with a rendering of a proposed mosque near ground zero.

The ad was paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an organization that opposes radical Islamic influence in the United States. The group's executive director says she doesn't find the ad offensive.

The group sued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to demand it accept the ad, which was approved Monday.

MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz says the agency doesn't endorse the ad's views.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012580818_apusgroundzeromosquead.html

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All New Activist News Site http://activistnews.blogspot.com

[marmar]

1. "an organization that opposes radical Islamic influence in the United States"

How about someone to oppose radical right-wing organizations like the American Freedom Defense Initiative?

I really hope the MTA reconsiders this.....It's wrong on so many levels.

[DesertFlower]

9. i agree. nt

[Chulanowa]

2. "American Freedom Defense Initiative"?

Right-wingers; making words meaningless since 1930

[aquart]

8. Do we know who's actually funding this?

And where their money comes from?

[Chulanowa]

11. Dunno where the money comes from

But it seems to be heavily wrapped up in the claws of that harpy, Pamela Geller.

Very likely has some GOP funding behind it. i'm not sure exactly how to trace this, however.

[aquart]

15. The more hidden, the more interesting.

Okay, I tend to be nosy.

[AzNick]

12. Aren't they a hoot? nt

[theaocp]

3. Stay classy, AFDI n/t

[Salander]

4. My guess is that the AFDI really wants to PROMOTE radical Islam in the US!

[mbperrin]

5. Part of their site is actually titled "Atlas Shrugs."

Gawd, does ANYONE still read that tripe?

[boppers]

13. A quote for you:

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
--John Rogers, http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html

[aquart]

6. A: This doesn't help a damn thing.

B: I have never seen an extreme or even moderate political opinion on a NYC bus in my life. This is not a continuation of policy but a radical change.

And a radical change in favor of a single viewpoint IS an endorsement of that viewpoint.

Makes me think the lawsuit was only to give the MTA political cover.

If anyone here is still unfamiliar with my views, I'm against the mosque. I'm totally and completely against this idiotic crap, too.

But C: It does make me wonder how the money is going to shake down when Con Ed sells its half of the building. There's a lot being planned for the space, none of which seems relevant to the MTA, so whose bosom buddy is it relevant to? New York politics are nowhere near as byzantine as New York finance. Or New York construction. Is this all to push the building contracts in one direction rather than another? Is it very paranoid of me to think these people aren't filled with disgust (as I am) so much as they're filled with greed?

This is very odd behavior from the MTA. It could be residual trauma from digging out those tracks and buried trains (everyone got out) or it could be something that won't make the papers for decades.

[savalez]

7. American Freedom Defense Initiative? I'm telling ya!

When they have a name like that you can bet that they are all about the exact opposite of what the name implies.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

17. very true

[alp227]

10. MTA should also accept a countering ad in favor of the cultural center (NOT just mosque!)

if it's really all about "freedom of speech". That ad'll be much more decent and welcoming and thoughtful and make that "American Freedom" orgy look like the bigoted knuckleheads that they are.

[Igel]

18. They'd have the right to produce and pay to have the ad run.

The sponsors of the center/mosque have a right to have it where they want it, unless it runs afoul of zoning regs. It doesn't. This is the bit that matters, though: Do they have the authority to build what they've planned?

"Hurting the feelings of the Christians" isn't worth considering.

The sponsors of this ad have a right to produce it and pay whoever will accept it to air it. It isn't incitement to violence. This is the bit that matters, though: Do they have the right to "hurt the feelings of the Muslims"?

Whether or not they have a right to pay a willing media outlet to air it isn't worth considering.

It's precisely the same point to be made by both sides, with the same legal solution and the same culturally-sensitive solution. in one case, people actively struggle to defend the rights of one group and say that their opponents sensibilities are irrelevant in a multicultural society. In the other, people actively struggle to defend the idea of finding accommodation and being nice in a multicultural society, rights be damned.

[Realityhack]

19. well said. n/t

[NYC Liberal]

14. Funny how I see more proselytizing from right-wing

Christian extremists than from Muslims of any stripe around here.

I think they're projecting their own agenda until Muslims.

[Omar4Dems]

16. K&R

[KamaAina]

20. This from the agency that turned down an ad reading

"Perhaps the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for."

Seriesly.

[Walk away]

21. I think it is safe to say that a majority of New Yorkers will be disgusted by this.

It's just more intolerant right wing drivel that is calculated to divide this country into two camps. People who can think and reason and people who react in fear and hatred to this kind of stimuli.

[krabigirl]

22. This is like something from a very bad movie.