Muslim ads on county buses drive Jewish group to protest

[sixmile]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbbus0115sbjan15,0,7060947.story

There's a new front in the conflict between Jew and Muslim: Broward County buses.

Fifty of the county's 290-bus fleet have been chugging around area streets for the past several weeks with a message that might seem more oblique than inflammatory. Black letters on a white backdrop proclaim, "ISLAM: The Way of Life of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad."

The $60,000 ad was paid for by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"We owe it to our fellow Americans to let them know that Islam stands for peace," said Altaf Ali, director of CAIR's South Florida chapter. "Muslims are here and Muslims are part and parcel of the United States."
-snip-

But the words have inspired opposition from a group called Americans Against Hate, led by Jewish activist Joe Kaufman. The group says the ad is misleading because it implies that Abraham, Moses and Jesus were Muslim.

"That's offensive to both Jews and Christians," said Kaufman, a resident of Coral Springs.

-snip-

Kaufman writes for the right-leaning Web publication Front Page Magazine, and once called for nuclear attacks on Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Since founding Americans Against Hate as a terrorism watchdog group, he wrote that "pure merciless force" was the only way to deal with Muslims.

"He's a man who advocates for killing," Ali said.

Ali said the ad accurately describes Abraham, Moses and Jesus. "A Muslim is anyone who submits their will to God," he said. "By that definition Abraham and all the prophets are Muslim because they submitted their will to God."

As to CAIR's alleged ties to Hamas, Ali said: "There is no credible evidence that that is true. Unindicted means unindicted."

Kaufman remains unconvinced. "They are an organization that's connected to the terrorist group Hamas," he said.

[Crunchy Frog]

1. "Americans Against Hate" That's a fucking irony.

:rofl:

[Chulanowa]

2. Well, technically Mohammed was Jewish, too...

In fact the only prophet that's ever been Christian was that guy the LDS folks have...

And yet they probably all had the exact same beliefs, practices, and attitudes. Go fig, right?

[Sanctified]

5. Mohammed was not Jewish, he was a descendant of Abraham and Hagar. n/t

[Sanctified]

6. moved... n/t

[Chulanowa]

12. Yeeeeah, I'm not talking religious mythology

Which is what the whole "the Arabs are Hagar's descendants" thing comes from.

I'm talking history. Mohammad was a Jew - as were most settled people in the Arabian peninsula at the time. Islam certainly isn't the descendant of the area's polytheistic religions, no matter how hard Salman Rushdie tries to bullshit that it is. Now why Mohammed decided to develop a revised edition to the User's Manual, one can only speculate.

[Malikshah]

3. Joe Kaufman? You mean this cretin? This guy is an attention-whore of the

worst kind. A blight on South Florida. He's the one on the right with the--you guessed it--American Flag tie...

?v=0

He is the equivalent to Fred Phelps when it comes to issues dealing with Muslims and/or Arabs in South Florida.

A neocon gadfly git.

Do a simple Google News Search with his website name "Americans Against Hate" w/ Joe Kaufman.

It tells you all you need to know about him.

He's got a willing audience down here. More's the pity.

[LeftishBrit]

4. What an idiot

The message is not one of hate - it's not threatening violence to non-Muslims. I can understand objecting to all religious proselytizing, but not treating support for Islam as particularly hateful.

And how cany you be 'against hate' and advocate nuclear attacks, and the use of 'brute force' against Muslims.

I wonder what Mr. Kaufman would think of the adverts that an atheist group is currently putting on some British buses: "There is probably no God'!

ETA: Abraham, Moses and Jesus were certainly not Muslim (it would have been difficult, as Islam was not founded till over 600 years after Jesus' death!); but they are, I believe, treated as prophets in the Muslim faith. I am sure that is what the advert meant.

[azurnoir]

10. I have had a Muslim friend say that by extension

Muslims are to degree also Christians.

[Malikshah]

14. According to Muslim belief...

Before humanity came from Adam's loins-- God removed us and asked "Am I not your Lord" Humanity agreed, thus submitting to God's Message and became ipso facto Muslim. Humanity was then rejoined with Adam to be born over the millennia.

God sent Prophets down-- Messengers, clarifying the message of God for humanity. Adam was the first, then we have Noah (Nuh), Abraham (Ibrahim), Moses, (Musa), David (Da'ud), Jesus (Isa), and finally Muhammad. There are other prophets before Muhammad--but I listed the "biggies".

Each of these Prophets sent by God had messages, etc. to clarify God's message/correct the believers actions.

Simply put-- Muslim theology holds that each of these Prophets are to be revered.

There is, of course, more to the theology (much less the development of said theology)

The posting on the bus is pretty innocuous. Kaufman is well known for his fixation on Islam.

[Sanctified]

7. This should be moved to Religion/Theology.

It really has nothing to do with Israel or Palestine.

[sixmile]

8. Disagree

It has everything to do with I/P
For 1300+ years

[Sanctified]

15. I/P has nothing to do with Jews and Muslims.

Not all Israelis are Jewish and not all Palestinians are Muslim.

[cali]

9. I have no more an objection to the ad than I do for any other

bizarro religious stuff, but I don't get it. How was Islam a way of life for Moses or Abraham or Jesus? All three lived hundreds or thousands of years before Islam came to be- if they existed at all. Doesn't make any sense to me despite Ali's explanation. By his way of thinking, every Jew and evangelical christian who "submits their will to God", is a Muslim. Silly.

[Scurrilous]

11. South Florida Muslims use bus ads, hotline to counter "Obsession" DVD campaign (Dec. 11 2008)

<snip>

"Remember when a copy of the DVD Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West -- a film decried as Christian propaganda that seems to suggest Islam leads to terrorism -- was included in a Sunday Herald? And we ripped the daily a new one for not initially explaining the controversial inclusion -- and then later ran an ad for the DVD ourselves (oops, our bad)?

Well, South Floridian Muslims sure do. And the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has launched a campaign to counter the propaganda. Perhaps you've noticed buses in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with ads reading, "Islam. Got Questions? Get Answers."

The listed number is for a hotline where experts on the religion answer any question a caller might have about Islam. CAIR has already run similar campaigns in Chicago and New York -- the above photo is of a Chicago bus -- and South Florida was chosen after Obsession was widely distributed here.

"You could say it's a very humble response in regards to Obsession," Altaf Ali, executive director of South Florida's CAIR chapter, told us this morning. The producers of that DVD spent $100 million distributing it nationwide, he says, but CAIR has used only $60,000, the majority of it from South Floridian donors, plastering this region's buses. "We thought there's a lot of misconceptions about Islam. We wanted to create an avenue for our fellow Americans to learn the truth about our religion."

The single most-asked question? "Does Islam promote violence?" says Ali. "And of course, we make emphatically clear that there is not a single sentence in the Koran that promotes killing of people."

Not shockingly, not every caller has greeted CAIR's operators with grace and tolerance. "So far, two callers have been very, very vocal in opposition to the campaign," Ali says in something of an understatement.

And he plays us a taped tirade. A caller booms: "There's no misconception. Islam is a terrorist militant . Who gives a fuck what you say? You're a bunch of fucking liars and Islamists. Fuck you and fuck your religion."

Ali says the voice has become quite familiar. Turns out he's a serial harrasser with CAIR on speed dial. But the campaign hasn't been met only with hate. "For the most part, I thought we were going to get more prank calls," Ali says. "We get more calls from people who are genuinely interested."

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2008/12/south_florida_muslims_use_bus.php

[Adsos Letter]

13. United States of America = Religious Liberty....

It has been praised as one of the greatest accomplishments of the Framers of the Constitution, and of the predominant spirit of the nation in its founding.

I do beleive Jefferson would say that the freedom to express a religious viewpoint, in this instance, would be a matter of liberty.