Another small but important victory for free speech and a blow to CAIR and other Islamists and jihadists who would rather there be silence on the unpleasant aspects of Islam.
Bravo Pam Geller and the SIOA!
From the American Thinker April 3 by Pamela Geller
But in Detroit, they caved to Islamic supremacism and violated their own ad guidelines of freedom of speech. Here is SMART's first guideline for bus ads:
SMART was saying that our ads offering help to those threatened for leaving Islam were political. They were effectively admitting that Islam was political -- an admission that had immense implications (far beyond, I'm sure, what Detroit imagined). If Islam is political, it ought to be subject to the restrictions and scrutiny to which all political entities in the U.S. are subject. This could open the door to a reevaluation of the unthinking assumption that Islam is simply a religion like Judaism or Christianity, and transform anti-terror efforts that are now hamstrung by the all-too-common idea that all that goes on in mosques is purely "religious."
In our AFDI motion to compel SMART to run our ads, we explained: "The fact that society may find speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for suppressing it. Indeed, if it is the speaker's opinion that gives offense, that consequence is a reason for according it constitutional protection."
Read it all
Bravo Pam Geller and the SIOA!
From the American Thinker April 3 by Pamela Geller
A Victory for Free Speech and Free People
In a notable victory for the freedom of speech, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled that Detroit's SMART bus system must run my religious liberty bus ads offering help to people wishing to leave Islam safely, without having to live in fear.This victory has been a long time coming. SMART initially refused to run my ads back in the spring of 2010. Despite the desperate need for resources for Muslims under threat for leaving Islam, the city of Detroit refused to run our freedom campaign on the Dearborn and Detroit buses. In May of that year, my group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, sued the city of Detroit for refusing our ads -- the same ads that were dropped and then allowed on free speech grounds in Miami, and which ran without legal challenge in New York City and San Francisco.But in Detroit, they caved to Islamic supremacism and violated their own ad guidelines of freedom of speech. Here is SMART's first guideline for bus ads:
As a governmental agency that receives state and federal funds, SMART is mandated to comply with federal and state laws. First Amendment free speech rights require that SMART not censor free speech and because of that, SMART is required to provide equal access to advertising on our vehicles.
What's more, contrary to claims from the Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other Islamic supremacists that the ads were "offensive," the need for them was obvious. According to the Washington Times, a teacher in Dearborn noted that there was "a climate of fear in the Detroit area's community." The educator explained: "The fear is palpable. I know there are things I am ‘not allowed' to say. A discussion of religion with a Muslim person is often prefaced by the statement, ‘Don't say anything about the Prophet [Muhammad].' In free society, open and honest conversation is not usually begun by a prohibition. Threats and intimidation are just part of life here."
SMART was saying that our ads offering help to those threatened for leaving Islam were political. They were effectively admitting that Islam was political -- an admission that had immense implications (far beyond, I'm sure, what Detroit imagined). If Islam is political, it ought to be subject to the restrictions and scrutiny to which all political entities in the U.S. are subject. This could open the door to a reevaluation of the unthinking assumption that Islam is simply a religion like Judaism or Christianity, and transform anti-terror efforts that are now hamstrung by the all-too-common idea that all that goes on in mosques is purely "religious."
In our AFDI motion to compel SMART to run our ads, we explained: "The fact that society may find speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for suppressing it. Indeed, if it is the speaker's opinion that gives offense, that consequence is a reason for according it constitutional protection."
Read it all
2 comments:
Of course you should be able to advertise on buses saying 'leave Islam', or whatever. So I wonder if the people who produce this site object to Seattle pulling ads from its buses saying 'Israeli war crimes - your tax dollars at work'... 'following (guess what?) pressure from Jewish groups'. Jewish groups are many times more powerful than Islamic ones, but you-all paint Muslims as the greater threat to freedom...
Jay, Jay misinformed, racist, Judeophobic and deluded as usual. Jews aren't suicide bombing restaurants, bus stops, libraries, hospitals and other public places in order to murder as many people as possible. Jews aren't driving their cars and trucks packed with explosives onto public streets around the world, hoping to get their point across by killing innocent bystanders. Jews aren't flying airplanes into buildings and into country fields hoping to murder as many "infidels" as is humanly possible. Jews aren't beheading, stoning, and beating people to death, many of them women, because the girl was a rape victim or supposedly made some vague comment that was perceived to be insulting to Jews. Jews aren't sending book bombs in Indonesia to political rivals or to people they deem "not Jewish enough". No the perpetrators of this worldwide holocaust are the Muslims, the sons and followers of Allah. They are the ones instigating and committing most of the violence around the world. The sad thing is that when someone points this out they are automatically branded as Islamaphobic or racist (there is no Muslim race)a ploy used in order to stamp out free speech and end any inquiry into the atrocities that Islam commits everyday. You know Jay and you should know because this is the tactic that you and all Islamists use all of the time, when you can't refute the FACTS, you play the victim and start shouting "what about them, they started it"!
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