The posters call for an end to all American aid to Muslim countries as a means of stopping racism.
By SAM SOKOLThe proposed ad for Washington DC buses. (photo credit: Courtesy)
An American Muslim group is up in arms over advertisements calling Islam inherently anti-Semitic, which are slated to go up on 20 public buses in Washington, DC.The posters, paid for by right-wing blogger and activist Pamela Geller, call for an end to all American aid to Muslim countries as a means of stopping racism.“Islamic Jew-Hatred: it’s in the Koran,” the advertisements state in large letters next to a picture of Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini, one of the fathers of Palestinian nationalism, with Adolf Hitler in Berlin during World War II.Husseini was an active Nazi collaborator who was supportive of Hitler’s genocidal policies.“My intent is [to] leapfrog over a media that is not even-handed, that is advancing the propaganda against the Jewish state,” Geller told the Washington-area TV station WJLA in explanation of the ads.The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) has announced that it will distribute free Korans “to counter” Geller’s advertisements.This is a propaganda campaign designed to incite hatred against American Muslims, and this campaign has been based on false information, taking things out of context from the Koran,” CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad told WJLA.Geller said that she decided to run her ads after an American Muslim organization ran its own bus banners calling for an end to American aid to Israel.Geller is a controversial figure. Accused of racism and Islamophobia by her critics, she is known for campaigning against what she believes is the “Islamization of America.”According to the Anti-Defamation League, Geller’s activities are focused on “consistently vilifying the Islamic faith under the guise of fighting radical Islam.”
Her organization, Stop Islamization of America, has “introduced a growing number of Americans to its conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda,” according to the anti-racism group, which termed her an anti-Muslim bigot.Geller is currently crowd-funding the money needed to pay for the ads.Her Indigogo page shows that she has only raised 29 percent of the $20,000 she needs.
