Pam Geller Group Launches New Anti-Islam Ad Blitz After Paris Terror Attacks
The anti-Islam group led by Pamela Geller is running advertisements on San Francisco public buses comparing the religion to Nazism.
The ads, sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, features photos of Adolf Hitler and 20th-century Palestinian Muslim leader Haj Amin al-Husseini, who opposed Zionism, with the caption “Islamic Jew-Hatred: It’s In The Quran.”
The 50 ads appeared last week on the buses following the Jan. 7 attack by Islamic extremists on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris that left 12 dead.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Reuters that his group has countered past efforts by Geller to place anti-Islam messages on public buses but would not do so this time.
Inflammatory ads sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative have appeared in New York and Washington.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in a statement cited the First Amendment protection of freedom of speech, “including speech that is considered offensive,” in explaining why it allowed the ads to be placed. It also said it did not want to use taxpayer dollars to defend itself against a lawsuit.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.