(Javeraea Khan, a Muslim-American, looks to hand out pamphlets challenging the “Support Israel/Defeat Jihad” advertisement (background) which was displayed on the walls of the Times Square subway station in New York September 24, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)
An inflammatory ad equating Islamic jihad with savagery was posted Monday in 10 New York City subway stations, even as much of the Muslim world was still seething over a California-made movie ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad.
The ad, sponsored by the pro-Israel American Freedom Defense Initiative, appeared after the Metropolitan Transit Authority lost a bid to refuse to post it on the grounds that it violated the agency’s policy against demeaning language. In July, a federal judge ruled it was protected speech and ordered the MTA to place the posters.
The ad, featuring mostly black-and-white lettering on 46-by-30-inch (117-by-72-cm) cardboard posters, will remain posted for a month, MTA spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said.
“In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man,” the ad reads. “Support Israel/Defeat Jihad.”
