MTA rejects hate-filled bus ads
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has rejected a request by the American Freedom Defense Initiative to run advertisements that include the phrase “Killing Jews” on the back of MTA New York City Transit buses.
The mock-up advertisement read, “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah,” with the attribution, “Hamas MTV.” The ad also depicted a masked figure with the accompanying phrase, “That’s His Jihad. What’s Yours?”
The MTA has concluded that the ad, allegedly a parody of “MyJihad” ads sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations – a set of ads the group claimed were intended to show that jihad is a concept of individual and personal struggle, rather than violent conflict or terrorism – would do the opposite, and “imminently incite or provoke violence or other immediate breach of the peace,” according to MTA Spokesperson Kevin Ortiz.