By (AP, October 5, 2012)
Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/38248/
New York, USA - Two religious groups will hang subway ads urging tolerance alongside anti-jihad advertisements that went up last month.
The ads by Rabbis for Human Rights – North America and the Christian group Sojourners will go up Monday. They’ll hang in the 10 Manhattan subway stations where the anti-jihad ads implying enemies of Israel are “savages” appear.
The Rabbis’ ad says “In the choice between love and hate, choose love. Help stop bigotry against our Muslim neighbors.” The Christian ad states: “Love your Muslim neighbors.”
In a statement explaining the ad campaign, Sojourners president and CEO Rev. Jim Wallis said “When Jesus said, ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ he didn’t add stipulations. He didn’t offer any extra addendums or added qualifiers. Christians around the world need to put that into action as often as we can, especially where we see hatred like this.”
On their website, Rabbis for Human Rights – North America said the anti-jihad ads “are meant to increase hatred and discrimination against New York City’s Muslims and to drive a wedge between Muslims and Jews.”
“It’s to the benefit of the Jewish community to partner with our Muslim neighbors,” executive director Rabbi Jill Jacobs told WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond. ”We know what it’s like to be a minority and we know what it’s like to be the target of discrimination and that’s why as Jews, because of that history, we have more of a responsibility to speak out when anyone is being discriminated again.”
On Wednesday, another group, United Methodist Women, placed pro-Muslim ads in the subway. They say: “Hate speech is not civilized.”
The American Freedom Defense Initiative is behind the anti-jihad ads, which state “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”
The ads were court ordered to be in city subways despite Metropolitan Transportation Authority opposition. A federal judge ruled the message is protected as free speech.
According to the MTA, the anti-jihad ads have been defaced 15 times.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative didn’t respond to requests for comment on the new ads.
I think that they do have a right to put these in public places. It does go along with free speech completely. I think that it will help to open the eyes of many Americans who have hatrid in their heart against muslims.
ReplyDeleteI believe this to be a great idea. Many people have a negative view of the Muslim faith in America today. This is mostly because of the steriotype that most Muslims are extremists, but that is not the case. The Muslim faith is actually a very nonviolent, peaceful faith. I think that signs like these, even if people do not pay much attention to them, will show a positive outlook on Muslim Americans. If people see them enough maybe they will begin to question any negative thoughts they may have about Muslims and start to behave more openly toward them.
ReplyDelete-JM
Posters are ok. The USA has always been a multi cultural nation and throughout history we have accepted (not welcome) other cultures. Until people start looking at one another as the same their will always be division. People are in denial and to be frank if the belief in a higher being other then ourselves can't pull us together what will?
ReplyDelete