- The Washington Times - Tuesday, March 12, 2013

San Francisco leaders say ads that started running on city buses on Monday are anti-Islamic, racist and denigrating to members of the Muslim community.

The ads, paid by American Freedom Defense Initiative dollars, show Osama bin Laden and the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting suspect — Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan — pictured among some quotes about Islam-driven warfare and weaponry. One quote, attributed to the Islamic group Hamas, reads. “Killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah,” The Associated Press reports.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, as well as District Attorney George Gascon, condemned the ads, AP says.

“These offensive ads serve no purpose than to denigrate our city’s Arab and Muslim communities,” Mr. Gascon said, in the AP report.

But AFDI officials say that’s kind of the point. AFDI executive director Pamela Geller said the reason for the ad campaign is to show just how jihadists term their own actions. The ads only reflect what jihadists have done and said themselves, she said.

“City officials denounce our ads, but not the actual quotes from high-profile jihadists calling for holy war and genocide,” she said, in the AP report. “Our new campaign focuses on how jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism.”

• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.

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