Geller vs. Detroit: Free Speech vs. Islamic Supremacism

Here's the latest on the violation of free speech in Detroit (where they need our freedom bus ads the most).

Legal Battle Brews Over Ban on 'Anti-Islam' Bus Ads AOL News

(June 23) — While a controversial ad campaign targeting Muslims is getting a
cold shoulder in Detroit, its ads may soon be appearing on the side of Motown
buses anyway.

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A conservative legal group has asked a federal judge to
force a Michigan bus company to run ads that offer support to Muslims who want
to leave their religion, saying the ads are protected under the First
Amendment.

"Fatwa on your head?" one of the slogans reads. "Is your
family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!"

A controversial ad campaign in Detroit targeting Muslims is
being defended by a conservative legal group. The Freedom Defense Initiative
wants a federal judge to force a Michigan bus company to run the
ads.

The "Leave Islam
Safely" ad campaign is paid for by the Freedom Defense Initiative, an
anti-jihadist group co-founded by Pamela Geller, a New York woman who is also
working to stop a controversial mosque from being built near New York's ground
zero.

The ads aren't new: They raised eyebrows when they ran earlier
this year in New York. And in Miami, they were removed from buses after local
Muslim leaders called them a "smoke screen for hatred," although a court ordered
the ads reinstated.

But in metropolitan Detroit, which has a large
Muslim population, the campaign has yet to get off the ground. Regional bus
company SMART simply refused outright to run the ads.

"The only city so
far that has dug their heels in is Detroit," said Robert Muise, a lawyer at the
Thomas More Law Center in Michigan, the conservative legal group representing
the Freedom Defense Initiative.

Muise has filed a motion for a temporary
restraining order against SMART, arguing that freedom of speech gives the
Freedom Defense Initiative the "right to engage in religious and political
speech in a public forum."

And Geller isn't taking no for an answer. In
a phone interview with AOL News today, she said she is determined to see the ads
on Detroit buses.

"There's no question that I'm going to win this and
those ads are going to run," she said.

Geller said the campaign is not
anti-Islam but meant to offer support to people who want to leave the faith.
"There are very few resources available to them, and their lives are threatened
— not just by their families but by their mosques and communities," she
said.

Raheem Hanifa of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said
that kind of sentiment is offensive. "The ads presuppose that Muslims are
violent and irrational. That's just not the case," he told AOL News. "This is
just another instance of fear-mongering and hate-mongering."

What a fraud. What are they so afraid of? Freedom?

However,
SMART recently allowed an atheist ad to appear on its buses. "Don't believe in
God? You are not alone," it read.

That means the bus company will have a
hard time standing its ground, according to Don Herzog, a law professor at the
University of Michigan and a constitutional scholar.

"It's a disaster
when the government starts picking and choosing viewpoints," he told AOL News.
"That's a First Amendment nightmare."

Geller told AOL News she's getting
ready to launch the ad campaign in another major city, but would not say where.

"I believe I'm fighting for Muslims here," she said. "I have no problem
with Muslims. I do have a problem with the violent ideology that inspires
jihad."

SMART could not be reached for comment.

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