Pamela Geller, organizer of the Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas that was attacked by terrorists, announced Tuesday that she has submitted the winning cartoon to run as an advertisement on buses in Washington D.C.
"It was the jihadis, not I, who made the cartoons a flash point,"
she wrote on Breitbart.com, announcing her plans. "If we surrender on that point and stop drawing Muhammad, we’ve established a precedent of surrendering to violent Sharia enforcement, and once established, we will be made to reinforce it again and again. Islamist government is a unique threat to free speech and liberty."
Knowing that many Muslims consider any depiction of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, deeply offensive, Geller added that "Putting up with being offended is essential in a pluralistic society in which people differ on basic truths."
Geller, the president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and staunch supporter of the First Amendment, said that the ad has been submitted to the MTA for display in the Foggy Bottom, Capitol South, Bethesda, L’Enfant Plaza, and Shady Grove stations.
Seeming to anticipate criticism and the possibility of violent backlash — something her past campaigns have drawn a lot of — Geller wrote further that "Drawing Muhammad is not illegal under American law, but only under Islamic law. Violence that arises over the cartoons is solely the responsibility of the Islamic jihadists who perpetrate it."
"There is nothing about this cartoon that incites violence. It is within the established American tradition of satire. If America surrenders on this point, the freedom of speech is a relic of history," she stated.
Geller has previously submitted anti-jihad ads to the New York MTA, prompting administrators there to ban all political ads.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.