Mark Matthews of ABC News (KGO TV), San Francisco, did a news report on our pro-Israel bus ads that just hit the streets. In it, Matthews proselytizes for Islam, redefines jihad, and makes a bit of a fool of himself. He falls over himself to get the Islamic perspective, but runs no counter to their claims. He spent a good deal of time during our interview arguing about the word "savage." I explained that any war on innocent civilians was savagery. Matthews countered that both the US and Israel have killed innocent civilians and I shot back that the US and Israel never target innocent civilians, ever. The deaths of innocent civilians are the tragic consequence of war sometimes. The war on Israel, OTOH, is a war on innocent civilians. Needless to say, that never made it onto the broadcast interview.
You can tweet Matthews @MatthewsABC7. He has already blocked me after I tweeted this:
@MatthewsABC7 Why only Muslim &anti-Israel voices in your news segment?Why no pro-Israel voices?Your bias is ugly.You redefine jihad #toolCheck out Matthews' report here: Pro-Israel ads on Muni buses spark criticism
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency has a policy against political ads on its buses, but an ad being displayed now comes pretty close. The ad says, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad."Matthews says "truth is in the eye of the beholder." Wrong. You are entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts. Truth is the recogniton of reality. Any war against innocent civilians is savage.
James Ashburn was surprised when he saw his bus roll up with the ad on the side. "It really struck me as an inappropriate ad to be on a city bus," he said. Ashburn took a picture of the ad and sent it to ABC7 News via uReport. He thought the ad crossed a line. "No matter what side you're on, you should not describe your opponent as a savage," he said.
The pro-Israel ad was purchased by the American Freedom Defense Initiative run by Pamela Geller. "The reason I wanted to run these ads was to counter the anti-Israel ads that were running in various cities across the country in New York, in D.C., on San Francisco BART," she said. If you don't remember any anti-Israel ads on BART, that's understandable. It has been a year since an ad ran calling on the U.S. to cut military aid to Israel. "It was a fallacious and dangerous message and it had to be countered with the truth," Geller said.
The truth being in the eye of the beholder, ABC7 News showed the ad to Muslim's going into Friday prayers at a San Francisco mosque. Adam Kennard called it propaganda. Ted Oriqat pointed out that the ad distorts the meaning of jihad. "Jihad, it doesn't mean killing people or anything like that," he said. And Oriqat is correct. Jihad means "struggle" and is frequently used as in "striving towards the way of God."
"No matter what side you're on, you should not describe your opponent as a savage,"Really? Decapitations, honor killing, dismemberment, clitorectomies deserve ..... respect?
The bus message didn't sit very well with the city system in New York. They refused to run them and Gellen took the transit authority to court. "And interestingly enough, the day that I won, was the day that San Francisco approved my ads that are currently running on your buses," Geller said.
A coincidence? Not according to Muni's spokesman Paul Rose. "In this specific case, litigation was brought to this organization and the transit agency lost," he told ABC7 News. So, the buses with the signs will continue to roll for at least the next four weeks. "If I had my way, they'd be in every city in the United States of America and if I can get the funding, that's exactly what's going to happen," Geller says.
Asked how this particular ad is not considered political in light of Muni's no-politics policy, Rose struggled to answer. However, the legal action and the fact that the New York MTA has already lost in court have had an impact.
UPDATE: From David Wood:, ACTs17:
Both the media and Muslim propagandists keep telling us that "Jihad" simply means "struggle," and that it often refers to "struggling" against one's own desires. They like to pretend that Muhammad didn't tell his followers which type of "Jihad" he had in mind when he commanded them to wage Jihad:
Sunan Ibn Majah 2794—It was narrated that Amr bin Abasah said: “I came to the Prophet and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, which Jihad is best?’ He said: ‘(That of a man) whose blood is shed and his horse is wounded.’”
So the best "Jihad," according to Muhammad, involves bloodshed. This sort of Jihad is so essential to Islam that a Muslim is said to be "deficient" if he doesn't have visible wounds on his body (as a result of fighting non-Muslims):
Sunan Ibn Majah 2763—It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever meets Allah with no mark on him (as a result of fighting) in His cause, he will meet Him with a deficiency.”
Indeed, Muhammad told his followers that Muslims who want to live in peace are hypocrites:
Sunan An-Nasa’i 3099—It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet said: “Whoever dies without having fought or having thought of fighting, he dies on one of the branches of hypocrisy.”
For more on the journalistic integrity (or lack thereof) of ABC News, see my video "Whitewashing Islam":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ5Bwj3iTrg
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