Seattle Metro鈥檚 Refusal to Run Anti-Jihad Ads By Geller Group Sparks Lawsuit
and her far-right Muslim-bashing organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, have announced they are striking back at 鈥淪haria Enforcement鈥� by suing the city of Seattle. Or someone.
In a press release earlier this week headlined 鈥淲e Are Suing the City of Seattle,鈥� Geller heralded the lawsuit by claiming that transit authorities in Seattle had refused one of the AFDI鈥檚 incendiary advertisements for their buses.
However, the lawsuit AFDI filed this week is actually against King County鈥檚 Metro Transit Authority, not the City of Seattle.
鈥淭welve years after the 9/11 jihad terror attacks, it has come to this: we have to file suit to fight against jihad terrorism, and the media calls us a 鈥榟ate group鈥� for doing it,鈥� Geller鈥檚 press release said.
As the release notes, the dispute revolves around a series of ads the AFDI purchased to appear on the sides of Metro buses. They featured mug shots of 16 鈥淔aces of Global Terrorism鈥� 鈥� all Arabic or black men 鈥� and all of whom are highly unlikely to be making appearances in Seattle anytime soon.
Previously, Metro had allowed the AFDI to run anti-Palestinian ads on some buses in response to similar ads run by pro-Palestinian groups. And it had run ads nearly identical to the 鈥淔aces鈥� billboards when they were sponsored by the FBI鈥檚 Joint Terrorism Task Force in June 2013. The JTTF, however, voluntarily removed those ads after U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller expressing concern. McDermott said the ads would 鈥渙nly serve to exacerbate the disturbing trend of hate crimes against Middle Eastern, South Asian and Muslim-Americans.鈥�
Geller鈥檚 press release explains: 鈥淏ut then the leftists and Islamic supremacists complained that the ads were 鈥業slamophobic,鈥� and they came down 鈥� and now聽 Seattle is refusing to allow my group, the AFDI, to put them back up. This is sharia compliance.鈥�
Jeff Switzer, a spokesman for Metro, declined to comment on the pending litigation but said the ads were refused because of Metro鈥檚 longstanding policy of refusing ads if they are have false and misleading statements, demeaning or disparaging content, or material that might lead to service disruptions.
