It is no doubt guided by Society of Professional Journalists policy that requires journalists never to state or imply any link between Islam and terrorism, but for Leftist journalists (i.e., almost all of them) these days, it’s a kneejerk reaction: when they see an Islamic jihadist vowing blood and murder, they immediately frame it in their report in terms of Muslims being victimized. So when there is a jihad mass murder attack or foiled plot, we get the stories about Muslim communities fearing a “backlash” against innocent Muslims. And in this execrable New York Daily News editorial, the first and only reaction to the genocidal antisemitic statement from Hamas that is depicted in our ad is to note that “the message would offend many Muslims.”
The Daily News means they will be offended at Pamela Geller, of course, not at Hamas. They should be offended at Hamas, if what we’re constantly told about the vast majority of Muslims being moderate, democratic, tolerant and pluralistic were true. They should see the ad and call upon Hamas and other Muslim groups to stop the jihad against Israel, drop the genocidal rhetoric, and teach against Islamic antisemitism in mosques and Islamic schools in the U.S. The Daily News should be calling upon them to do those things. Instead, it smears Pamela Geller as a “hatemonger” (in the photo caption) for pointing out that this genocidal antisemitic statement was made, and that nothing is being done about it.
More below.
“The First Amendment train: Despite Pamela Geller’s offensive nonsense, the MTA should continue to allow political ads on buses and subways,” New York Daily News, April 24, 2015:
After being forced by a court to run an inflammatory, anti-Muslim ad on the city’s buses and subways, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority aims to get out of the political advertising business.
Hamas is a Muslim group. It made the statement that “killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah” in a video that also said: “Repeat in the name of your Jihad: Death to Israel!” Our AFDI ad was meant to counter Hamas-linked CAIR’s cynical and deceptive campaign trying to fool Americans into thinking that jihad was romping through the daisies and blowing milk bubbles through a straw. The ad counters these comforting fictions with reality, making the point that for all too many Muslims, jihad is something more lethal. The implication is that Muslims and non-Muslims alike should be calling upon Hamas and other Muslim entities to drop this hateful rhetoric. Instead, the Daily News shoots the messenger, referring to the ad as “Pamela Geller’s hateful nonsense” and as an “inflammatory, anti-Muslim ad.”
With sympathy for the MTA’s tough spot, the agency is mistaken in trying to eliminate issue-oriented ads as a way to swat one annoying gadfly.
Pamela Geller makes a habit of throwing rhetorical bombs. She’s written books like “Stop the Islamization of America” and argued that President Obama is “consistently on the side of Islamic supremacist regimes.”
What, he isn’t? Where? When?
One of her latest proposed ads quotes a Palestinian TV station run by Hamas as stating that “Killing Jews is worship that draws us closer to Allah,” alongside the image of a young man in a headscarf. “That’s his Jihad. What’s yours?”
Understanding that the message would offend many Muslims and arguing that it might even incite violence, the MTA rejected the campaign.
Why would the ad offend many Muslims? Because they condemn Hamas and its genocidal rhetoric, and back up their condemnation with real action to teach against these attitudes in Muslim communities? Where? When? Do they have a different idea of jihad and consider Hamas and its antisemitic jihad to be un-Islamic? Even if that were true, Hamas presents itself as Muslim group waging jihad in cause of Islam, and justifying its actions by referring to Islamic texts and teachings. Do Americans not need to know this? Does no one need to call attention to it or endeavor to counter it? Everything the ad says is true: Hamas made this statement, and did so in the context of jihad. Muslims who oppose this view of jihad and this hateful antisemitism should be siding with Pamela Geller and criticizing Hamas, not her. And the Daily News should be more concerned about the fact that there are Muslims who actually believe this than about the Muslims who claim to be so offended by it that they want it off the buses, but don’t lift a finger to counter these attitudes within Muslim communities.
And the idea that it “might even incite violence” is also nonsense. The ad ran in San Francisco and Chicago without incident. The MTA claimed it would incite violence but could not adduce even one example of its doing so. And the violence would be from Islamic jihadists who would presumably mistake it for a pro-jihad ad. You’d have to be quite dim to do that, but if someone did, the focus should be on protecting people from violence, not on curtailing speech in light of the possibility that violence could ensue — for once we do that, we enable any thug to shut down any speech he dislikes by threatening violence over it.
…It’s well and good, and constitutional, to ban ads that could reasonably incite violence — say, with mocking images of the Prophet Mohammed.
In this, the Daily News is essentially counseling surrender to the jihad. Instead of standing up against violent intimidation, the Daily News is saying, Give in to the bullies and thugs. They will kill us if we say something they dislike, so let’s not say anything they dislike. That is the coward’s way, the path of capitulation and submission. What ever happened to, I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it? Gone and forgotten. And so also, before too long, will be our freedom of speech, and with it our other freedoms.
Beyond that, viewpoints should be welcome. New Yorkers are big boys and girls. If swallowing some outrageous drivel is the cost of preserving other worthwhile advertising in one of the city’s most important gathering places, so be it. One hater shouldn’t spoil things for everyone else.
So it’s “outrageous drivel” now to call attention to Hamas’ genocidal rhetoric. Which only ensures that we will get more such rhetoric.
I Iat says
If the New York Daily News wants to ” ban ads that could reasonably incite violence ” i suggest they start a campaign to ban the koran. A free society does not ban the koran though because you run into problems deciding what to ban and what not to ban.
Probably the writers of the New York Daily News did not bother to read the koran. http://members.ziggo.nl/iiat/DIYYouCanDoToo.htm They are not doing their job.
http://members.ziggo.nl/iiat/
Bezelel says
“Proverbs 8:12 I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. 13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. 14 Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength. 15 By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. 16 By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.”
Pamela has been batting a thousand!!! The accuser doesn’t dare match facts and fiction.
pdxnag says
New ad:
“New York Daily News thinks it is hateful to oppose the extermination of Jews.”
That is the message I see. Their posture is horribly dreary at best.
Scott says
Dear Friends of Atlas Shrugs (Pamela Geller) and Jihadwatch.org (Robert Spencer):
We must add our voices of dissent to the fools who believe their politically correct indignation is anything more than their attempt at narcissism and appeasement.
Please write the Foolish NYDN Editorial Board, their email is here:
voicers@edit.nydailynews.com
This is my letter, please write yours!
Dear NYDN Editorial Board….
In reference to your article – see link: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/editorial-amendment-train-article-1.2198190
Do you realize how ridiculous your editorial is?
Why are you calling “TRUTH, the new Hate Speech” (no you didn’t say this, Ms. Geller did.)
The nuances of “political islamist fascists” seems to be as lost on you as it does President Obama.
No where does Ms. Geller state that she thinks all Muslims are evil. She just points out the facts – the TRUTH.
That there is an ideology out there that would be happy to quash your very papers right to your opinions and kill you if you didn’t obey their totalitarian dictates.
Americans need to see this in print and confront the fundamentalist psychosis of a group of people who think your right to live in the 7th Century is an absolute necessity.
Your attempt at politically correct indignation is quite misplaced and frankly embarrassing.
Read her link below to see how utterly foolish your editorial looks in light of the facts.
Ms. Geller’s own words speak volumes.
See Link:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/04/new-york-daily-news-afdi-ad-criticizing-hamas-is-outrageous-drivel-that-would-offend-many-muslims
Name Given, Phone Number and Town Given – withheld here for obvious reasons
YOU MUST PUT YOUR NAME/CITY/Phone number in your email to them.
jihad3tracker says
Hello Scott — Sorry for being a late reply to you superb post. ACTUALLY TAKING THE TIME AND ENERGY to send comments to press idiots like the NYDN is extremely important.
We know that ISLAMO-FASCISTS such as CAIR have zombie Muslims writing hundreds or thousands of phony “Islamophobia” emails.
Westman says
There is a simple solution. Have best of the ad images copied and sized for bumper stickers and charge, at least, the costs of production and shipping. Twenty buses in a city won’t have the coverage of 500 bumper stickers and won’t defray the costs.
If you want coverage in say, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, etc, bumper stickers are the only method that works other than expensive billboards.
Ricky Black says
1- When was Palestine founded and by whom?
2- What were its borders?
3- What was its capital?
4- What were its major cities?
5- What constituted the basis of its economy?
6- What was its form of government?
7- Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
8- Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
9- What was the language of the country of Palestine ?
10- What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine ?
11- What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan on that date.
PRCS says
You win the “has been paying attention award” today, Ricky.
Scott says
To add to this thread:
“There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity… yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel”.
– Zuhair Muhsin, military commander of the PLO and member of the PLO Executive Council –
Scott says
And while were’ on the subject, a bit more from Arab Historians:
Let us hear what other Arabs have said:
“There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it”.
– Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937 –
“There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not”.
– Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian, 1946 –
“It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria”.
– Representant of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations, 1956 –
Concerning the Holy Land, the chairman of the Syrian Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in February 1919 stated:
“The only Arab domination since the Conquest in 635 c.e. hardly lasted, as such, 22 years”.
Richie says
How quickly the New York press forgot that 9/11 was carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam; an act of mass murder that Muslims openly celebrated world wide
Thomas says
The newspaper apparently determined it was not appropriate to discuss the harm to the Jews who would be killed if the comments were followed. Common sense tells me that Jews, if anyone, should be outraged by the quote. The paper decided not to discuss this vantage point.
Truth Seeker says
This sort of Report in News Paper shows Infiltration of Stealth Islamic Jihadis to News Media. If Terrorists have No Religion, why all of them are from one Religion.
Dave J says
Capitulation and submission to the jihad must stop and free speech upheld. When your politically correct multicultural self-victimization blinds you to the facts and forbids plain speaking, you (and we) are on the road to a Sharia law dictatorship.
Open your eyes and ears to the deceit being conducted by the true believers and their apologists.
Karen says
“I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say”.
Yes, I haven’t heard that one in ages. It used to be said with a certain fellowship, and pride in our ideals, as if those ideals transcended the very debate. But that sentiment has disappeared. The Left simply wants to crush and destroy all opposition. We used to be told that it was our freedoms and our character that made us strong and worthy. Now the measure of a society is how many goodies it hands out, or how accommodating it is to its enemies.
Jay Airahs says
Unwillingness to offend Muslims and their very offensive pseudo-religion is why their zombie ideology has not yet been mocked out of existence.
PRCS says
“Hamas is a Muslim group. It made the statement that “killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah” in a video that also said: “Repeat in the name of your Jihad: Death to Israel!” Our AFDI ad was meant to counter Hamas-linked CAIR’s cynical and deceptive campaign trying to fool Americans into thinking that jihad was romping through the daisies and blowing milk bubbles through a straw.”
As a long time JW/DW reader/poster, I KNOW why this campaign is being conducted. I know what drives it. I remember those idiotic CAIR ads.
Several nights ago, Bill O’Reilly didn’t appear to know what lead up to this in asking why it was being done.
Doesn’t he have a research staff?
Walter Sieruk says
To who it may concern, the vicious ,brutal and murderous Islamic terror entity Hamas was stared an has been and is funded by the tyrannical Islamic regime of Iran. In other words the malicious and deadly Hamas is the fruit of the Islamic tyranny of Iran with its malice-filled and wicked mullahs who have so much power in the heinous Islamic regime. This alone say something about the vile and hideous essence of the Islamic dictatorship of Iran with the unconscionable scheming of its mullahs and ayatollahs. Jesus did,in fact , teach “By their fruit ye shall know them” Matthew 7:20. [K.J.V.]. Furthermore, in the book be Mark Hitchcock which in entitled IRAN AND ISRAEL the reader is informed in page 82 that ” ‘Hamas’ is an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, and it means ‘zeal.’ Since its inception , Hamas has been committed to destroying the Jewish State and replacing it with an Islamic state in all Israel.”
jewdog says
Nobody reads print media anymore anyway, unless they turn it over for the sports scores.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Not for the news, but they still read ads in the print medium. We know this is so because the ad industry expenditures for print ads has held fairly steady since first the dawn of radio, then TV and most recentlyof the Internet. But you’re thought is a good one. When I pick up my daily copy of the globo-socialist Minneapolis Star Trubune up off my driveway every morning, I slip out the Sports Section (which is a very good one) and toss the rest into the recycling bin. Especially because they usually include pro-Moslem pieces about the latest teen Somali who has gone off to join the Global Jihad. Not once has that awful newspaper asked how they get the money for the airplane ticket.
R Cole says
The majority of Muslims come from the most repression nations on earth – most telling the nation comes closest to North Korea in terms human rights violations [and that’s trying hard] is Saudi Arabia – the epicenter of Islamic worship.
Not surprising Muslims are more delicate on the subject of freedom and individual rights – and so the urge to mollycoddle them is enormous – [Islamic baby bottle ~ only this baby is saying ~ I want Islamic state ~ I want Islamic state!!] – such that even when someone ~ writes in bold letters on the side of a bus ~ look!! This is what they are saying ~ the one who repeats what is a normal part of the Muslim diet on Arab TV ~ becomes the offensive one.
We know Muslims are going to be upset – we know they are going to be offended ~ the food ain’t halal ~ the women are wearing short sleeved shirts and showing their wrists ~ so we are trying to change western laws and norms to accommodate Islam – and the only thing we are going to get is Islamic law.
Muslim sentiment ~ is law in the Islamic world.
Instead we should be telling Muslims in the free world to toughen up – Did the Mufti of Jerusalem collude with Hitler – for the elimination of the Jews?
We are used to hard questions about our religions and history ~ if not move to a place which offers full protection for such ideas ~ but here we value freedom.
What they want is to turn the whole place into ‘Not Free’ Arabia and have us say how nice it is!!
gerard says
The 10 Commandments have been replaced by just 1: Thou shalt not offend Muslims!
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Fox RINO News Contributor Judge Napolitano was on the other day talking about this controversy. He weighed in that the ads are irresponsible and would cause anger among Moslems, but woe the First Amendment forces the to state allow them.
Two things:
1) Since when does the law matter anymore? Our president, the guy with the middle name Hussein, has issued dozens of dictates, and Congress has taken no action to enforce the law.
2) Napolitano is a typical scumbag American judge; he offered no opinion on whether the facts presented in the ads are truthful. The truth doesn’t matter to judges nowadays, only technicalities
Jack Diamond says
Saw that, the ever Islam-clueless O’Reilly agreed with him. No mention of the pro-Palestinian
anti-Israel ads (or the My Jihad is harmless fun ads) buses have run that this ad is a response to, either.
Dave J says
Muslims offend me with their idealogical hatred every day of the week – I could care less if they are offended by actual facts
mortimer says
“Hamas is a Muslim group. It made the statement that “killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah” in a video that also said: “Repeat in the name of your Jihad: Death to Israel!”
B-b-but it isn’t ‘hate speech’ if Muslims do it.
duh_swami says
It won’t help much to write to the editor…You can’t fix stupid…But it may be helpful to write to their advertisers and explain nicely how if they support this kind of yellow journalism, you won’t support them by buying their products…and it may be helpful to tell the editor that’s your intention…Threatening their sources of income has a way of producing weak knees…
Linda Rivera says
Telling the TRUTH about Islam offends Muslims.
Eternal shame on the NY Daily News. Are they paid huge sums of money by Qatar and Saudi Arabia to lie and deceive for Islam or do they they volunteer their services for free in the goal of global Islamic conquest?
Non-Muslims are offended by the Quran’s multiple commands to forcibly convert, perpetrate satanic atrocities, behead, barbarically mass murder non-Muslims and capture non-Muslim girls and women for sex slaves and torture and gang rape the innocents.
NY Daily News sold their souls.
Oliver says
Before I left New York ( I left 1979)- The Daily News was a far right wing newspaper; and The New York Post (owned and run by Dorothy Schiff- fairly certain that was how her name was spelled) far left wing.
Then, around 1979-81 or so, Mr. Murdoch bought the Post, and it became right wing. I think it would have been around then (I was out of NY and rarely bothered to read their newspapers) (so a guess) that The Daily News took up the leftist point.. If to provide balance, or a change of ownership or editorial boards, I don’t know.
However, when I lived in NY, The Daily news was considered a rag, not a decent paper. (However, they ahd a great sports section and great comics).
Uncle Vladdi says
Liberals are racists: they always assume that ONLY White Western people (including, of course, the Jews in Israel,) are INTELLIGENT enough to be guilty of being truly evil, while all their pet “People Of Colour” (including the “swarthy palestinians”) being mentally inferior and all, just can’t help being enslaved by their instincts and emotions into acting as violent animals when frustrated, the poor oppressed little dears, so the liberals will always indulge their crimes, much as one ignores the new puppy as it pees on the rugs.
Islam can be easily studied and known in its entirety, by anyone. It will never change!
So, when Western people won’t educate them *selves* about islam because our culture defers all thinking to those “authorities” we PAY to do our thinking and research for us, while they secretly know full-well that the salesmen in charge will always sell us all out, they ARE CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT INFANTILE DELINQUENT TRAITORS TO RATIONALITY AND CIVILIZATION!
It should never be allowed by backwards people to be considered “illegal” to accuse these criminals (muslims) of their crimes, allegedly because the painful truth might offend them or hurt their feelings, and so “make” them commit even more crimes!
No problem was ever solved by ignoring it, and nobody is doing even these muslims any favours, by indulging their historic lies that islam is a “religion” (at all, much less one “of peace”) or a “race” (much less one of poor oppressed “People Of Colour”)!
Pretending there is NOT a Muslim problem but only a white racist problem accepting diversity, is criminally negligent TREASON.
The Qur’an is more than just another flawed book of confusing, contradictory superstitious nonsense, it’s evil.
Islam is a threat to everyone because it says it is.
According to their own Eastern histories, islam has an official 1,400 year history of “holy” lies, extortions, robberies, tortures, arsons, kindappings, slaveries, rapes and 270 million murders: that’s OVER A QUARTER-BILLION INNOCENTS SACRIFICED TO ALLAH, so far!
Islam has a larger death-tally than that of EVERYONE ELSE, both secular and religious, COMBINED, and with an historical average of less than 1% of the global population to have committed it with, too!
Do the math: 270 million divided by 1,400 is almost 200,000 per year, or over 500 per day, or over 20 per hour or about one person every three minutes being murdered by Muslims ever since Islam was founded.
So, simply and precisely because of their “THOU SHALT KILL!” cultural indoctrination, MUSLIMS ARE STILL FROM BETWEEN FOUR AND SEVERAL HUNDRED TIMES MORE LIKELY TO ENGAGE IN MURDER (and all other crimes,) THAN EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD!
ALL muslims are criminals: by their own rules, they must endorse in public every word in the Qur’an, which tells them that they are so “superior” to all non-muslims, that it’s not only their right, but also their holy duty to their god, to extort, enslave, and murder all the non-muslims in the world, simply for the “crime” of not being muslims.
So the Qur’an is a clearly-written, us-versus-them hate-crime book, endorsing a permanent might-makes-right death-threat.
ALL muslims are criminals, as being members of the ancient, ongoing global extortion racket called islam. In sharia law texts, muslims are SUPPOSED to be regarded as threats (as “objects of fear”) by all the unbelievers, whether or not the individual muslim has itself actually committed any crimes.
That’s why we have laws against simply being a MEMBER of a crime-gang or ‘criminal enterprise’ because their membership endorses the inherent threat. Threats are crimes in themselves: they are psychological attacks, also known as intimidation, bullying, coercion, duress, harrassment, activist agitation, extortion, and “terrorism.”
And even any “only” attempted crimes are still considered by civilized people to be crimes.
Here’s islam’s “holy Message from god” as exemplified by the collective words and deeds of it’s Founder:
“I will save humanity by lying to, extorting, torturing, robbing, burning out of their homes, kidnapping and ransoming, enslaving, raping and murdering everyone who even only verbally disagrees with me – and you can, too!”
– Muhammad –
Muhammad was really only a con-man and bandit-king, an arch-criminal who always blamed “god” for his own penchant for committing crimes. If Moe got away with committing a crime (and he tried them all, enthusiastically, more than once, but instead of ever showing contrition, bragged about how much fun it was to commit them, and advised everyone else to join in the fun, too), then it was held to be “obvious” that “god” wanted him to get away with having committed those crimes!
So, islam is not a “religion” (at all, much less one “of peace”) nor is it a “race” (at all, much less one of “Poor, Oppressed, People Of Colour”)!
Obviously, islam is ONLY an ancient, ongoing extortion-racket CRIME-syndicate, and the only “religious” part in it, is where they say:
“God told us to commit these crimes!”
(Capisce?)!
The Qur’an clearly and specifically tells muslims the Bible is wrong and also that all Christians and Jews are infidel criminals who worship a false god, and who must therefore be extorted, enslaved, and murdered for their “crime” of not being muslims:
Sura (Chapter) 47:1-4 of the Qur’an:
1: non-muslims are bad, because they insult allah by dividing his nature;
2: muslims are good, because to them allah is the cause of everything;
3: Allah made them both like that;
4: So muslims should chop off the non-muslims’ heads.
(Allah could have done it himself, but he wants you muslims to do it for him).”
…
It’s all right there, in context: islamic violence is entirely general doctrine-driven, and not at all specific grievance-driven.
(And chapter 47 isn’t by any stretch even remotely the worst, most violent chapter; that honor goes to either chapter 8 or 9).
…
So, if and when you consider islam to be a religion, you must agree with it’s main tenet: that God is a violent murderer who wants his muslim tribe to violently conquer the world by extorting, enslaving, and murdering all the non-muslim humans, right?
At WORST, all REAL religions only say:
“Obey our silly rules, or GOD (/’the gods’) will get you!”
…but ONLY islam says:
“Obey our silly rules, or WE will get you (‘for god’)!”
A forced ‘Faith!’ ISN’T a “Faith!” at all – it’s only extortion, and extortion is always a CRIME.
Bottom line: If you decide to believe in “allah,” you have declared yourself a criminal, and so must be arrested, indicted, tried and convicted. Your confession of “faith” in your crime-god will help us to do so.