A
judge’s ruling that a poster blasting jihad and sharia law may be displayed on New York City buses is a Constitutional victory, conservative activist Pamela Geller, whose pro-Israel group created the ad, tells
Newsmax TV.
"It's First Amendment freedom of speech," Geller said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
The advert was created by a pro-Israel organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which Geller co-founded.
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Manhattan Federal Court Judge John Koeltl said the MTA wrongly denied Geller and her group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, from displaying the poster which features a sinister man in a Middle Eastern scarf and the quote, "Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah."
The MTA had argued the poster could provoke violence against Jews, but the judge disagreed.
"This free speech victory was for a sign, [with] a direct Hamas quote that said killing Jews is worship to Allah.... Most people do not know that the jihad against the Jewish state is a religious imperative," Geller told Steve Malzberg.
"The root cause is religious. It has nothing to do with 'stolen land,' a blood liable against Israel and everything to do with the koranic text and teachings that call for the annihilation of the Jews. I submit to you that most people don't know that."
She said the MTA had feared the bus ad would incite Muslims to kill Jews.
"The judge said, any jihadi that would kill Jews, they're going to do it with or without this bus sign. This bus sign is not going to incite, it's not The going to radicalize," Geller said.
The ad is intended to be a parody of an ad put out by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil liberties group that promotes the rights of Muslims and better relations between Muslims and non-Muslims.
In 2012 and 2013, CAIR ran posters in several American cities promoting peaceful versions of Islam. " '#MyJihad is to build friendships across the aisle.' What's yours?" read one.
Geller has had other ads featuring anti-Islamic messages run in the past – including one of American journalist James Foley, who was beheaded by Islamic State (ISIS) militants last August.