Philadelphia Muslims Turning The Other Cheek As Anti-Islam Bus Ads Appear
By KYW community affairs reporter Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Controversial Anti-Islamic ads began running today on dozens of Septa buses rolling throughout Philadelphia.
Today, as the Route 33 bus rolled around City Hall, part of its normal route, a posterboard ad could be seen on its side featuring Adolf Hitler with a 1940s Islamic leader.
Alongside the photo, text says, "Islamic Jew-Hatred: It's in the Quaran."
"That kind of stuff is not true," noted Karima, who is Muslim and rides Septa every day. She says she'll turn the other cheek and ignore the ads.
"Pray for 'em -- that's all you can do is pray for them," she added. "Allah is peace."
The advertisements were purchased for $30,000 by a New Hampshire-based group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative, with the goal of ruffling feathers about the US sending money to Islamic countries.
"These ads are spiteful, they're hurtful, they serve no purpose," said Jacob Bender, who runs the Philadelphia chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations. His group will be passing out leaflets tomorrow in center city to raise awareness about the truth of Islam as a religion of peace. "We want to turn this moment of hate into a moment of compassion and tolerance," he said.
The ads will run on 84 Septa buses throughout the month of April. The transit agency fought for months in court against placement of the ads, but lost on free speech grounds.
Septa changed its ad policy in October, and says similar ads will not be permitted in the future.
And while the controversy over the message seems large, the impact so far has been small.
"We want to use this as a teaching moment," adds Bender.
