Muni has placed a counter-ad on 10 of its buses right alongside the controversial pro-Israel message that an activist bought.
Muni’s ads read:
SFMTA policy prohibits discrimination based on national origin, religion, and other characteristics, and condemns statements that describe any group as “savages.”
Muni’s ad has an arrow pointing downward to the original ad, which has caused a stir with this language:
In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.
Muni spokesman Paul Rose tells ABC 7 in San Francisco, “Obviously, we think the ads that are in place right now are repulsive and they definitely cross a line. There’s not a lot we can do, in light of the First Amendment”
Pamela Geller with the American Freedom Defense Initiative paid for the original ad and responds on her blog:
This is unprecedented in the history of outdoor advertising. This is the manifestation of Sharia in Western society. Any war on innocent civilians is savage. They are reading the idea that “all Muslims” or “all Arabs” want to destroy Israel into my ad. That is nowhere in my message. They are the Islamophobes and racists.
Geller writes she plans to run another ad, to counter the counter ad:
So will Muni place a counter-counter-counter ad? We’ll keep you posted.