(CT) Anti-Islamic Ads Target Metro-North Commuters

August 23, 2012|By Martin B. Cassidy, The Stamford Advocate, Conn. (MCT), McClatchy-Tribune News Service

STAMFORD — -- Metro-North Railroad is reviewing its advertising policies after the latest controversial billboard linking Islam to terrorist attacks that currently appear at a handful of New Haven Line stations.

The series of billboards paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative are the latest chapter in an ongoing battle of trackside messages financed by advocacy groups on opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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The current ad campaign posted at five Connecticut stations on the New Haven Line -- Greenwich, Cos Cob, Noroton Heights, Darien and South Norwalk -- include the slogan "It's not Islamophobia, It's Islamorealism," in red lettering on a black background.

Above the slogan, the poster lists the number 19,250, the purported number of terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic extremists since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Pamela Geller, a blogger who runs the AFDI and paid $10,000 for the ads, attributed the number of attacks cited to a list compiled by TheReligionofPeace.com, a website which publishes a list of acts of violence it includes under the umbrella of Islamic terrorism, including the killing of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and various other murders.

http://articles.courant.com/2012-08-23/news/hc-anti-islamic-ads-metro-north-0824-20120823_1_pamela-geller-american-freedom-defense-initiative-islamic-extremists