A Muslim organization has launched yet another counteroffensive against right-wing blogger Pamela Geller and her fiercely anti-Islamic group.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has plastered a message of interfaith unity and cooperation on over 20 of Washington D.C.’s buses, as a response to ads from Geller that suggested the Koran instructed Muslims to hate Jews.
“Islamic Jew-Hatred: It’s In the Quran,” the American Freedom Defense Initiative ad read, alongside a picture of Adolf Hitler talking to Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem who was a Nazi supporter.
CAIR’s new crowdfunded ads feature individuals from three different religions — a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew — who all stand behind a verse from the Koran. The passage reveals that all who believe in God and do good deeds — regardless of their particular religion — will be rewarded by their sustainer.
“Our goal is not to necessarily stop hate speech, because we believe in freedom of expression, but to counteract hate speech with good speech,” said CAIR’s Maryland spokeswoman, Zainab Chaudry, emphasizing later that there is a distinct difference between hate speech and free speech.
The sides of D.C.’s buses are the latest stage for the back-and-forth bickering between Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative and CAIR. The organizations went head to head in 2012 over another one of Geller’s anti-Muslim ad campaigns.
CAIR’s national communication director Ibrahim Hooper acknowledged that engaging the AFDI with a counter-campaign gives Geller the “free publicity she so desperately seeks.” But he said the organization felt compelled to act.
“We’d rather spend all our time promoting a positive message of interfaith understanding and not respond to her constant hate messaging,” Hooper told The News. “But if she’s going to cross the line, we have an obligation as the leading advocacy group for Muslims in America to step in and set the record straight.”
In an email sent to The News, Geller called CAIR’s move “a deceptive and dishonest propaganda campaign.” She says she’s planning to hit back with yet another set of ads, this time meant to tarnish the reputation of CAIR’s officials. The ads have shown up in New York’s subways and are reportedly coming to Washington, D.C.
Geller also says CAIR took the Koran quotation out of context and that the passage they cited only refers to people who convert to Islam.
“CAIR knows this, and is trying to deceive gullible non-Muslims,” Geller wrote.
CAIR officials say Geller, who is not a Muslim, is making unfounded claims about the Koran instead of listening to what American Muslims have to say about their sacred book.
“If we were to cherry-pick verses from any holy text, then every faith would have controversial texts,” Chaudry said.
Chaudry believes the vast majority of people who see Geller’s ads recognize they are distasteful and don’t take them for face value. But she says there may be a small minority whose fear and anger toward Muslims is reinforced by the ads. Chaudry pointed to the case of New York’s alleged subway pusher, Erika Menendez, who said she shoved a man onto the path of a train because he was Muslim.
“That was a station where one of Geller’s ads had been posted,” Chaudry said. “It’s hard not to draw that correlation.”
CAIR’s ads will run for about a month and will appear on the same bus routes as the AFDI’s ads.
