This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4354

CAIR's Attempted Censorship of Florida Bus Advertisements Defeated

April 22, 2010

April 22, 2010 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a victory for freedom of expression as well as a push-back against expanding efforts to impose Shari'a compliance in the United States, the Miami Dade Transit Authority has reversed a previous decision, thus clearing the way for the return of a series of ads on Florida busses which offer advice to those who might be considering leaving Islam but are fearful of Muslim proscriptions against apostasy, the penalty for which some noted Muslim scholars say is death.

The original ad campaign - part of a larger effort by Stop the Islamization of America [SIOA] and the Freedom Defense Initiative - was sponsored by Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch and activist Pam Geller but had been pulled under pressure from Islamist groups including CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in America's largest and most successful prosecution of Hamas terror funding, U.S. vs. Holy Land Foundation.

Giving CAIR's position was Muhammed Malik, the organization's Florida director who stated, "The advertisement's use of the hot-button issue of apostasy is merely a smoke-screen to promote anti-Islam bigotry and attempt to marginalize American Muslims." [source, CAIR Florida website, cached by Google at, http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:y7EHlaRJ968J:www.cair-florida.org/sfl/Articles.aspx%3Fcid%3D3387%26aid%3D3387+CAIR+promote+anti-Islam+bigotry+and+attempt+to+marginalize+American+Muslims&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]

When notified by the transit authority that the ads had been pulled, Mr. Spencer and Ms. Geller retained attorney David Yerushalmi and the Thomas More Law Center.

A teleconference was arranged first with the Miami-Dade County Attorney's office, which took place Monday afternoon. After listening to Mr. Yerushalmi's brief, the county attorneys conceded the ads should not have been pulled. By Tuesday, Mr. Yerushalmi had negotiated a full and complete retraction of the contract termination with a NY-based attorney for CBS Outdoor. Not only would the original 10 king-sized ads go back up on the Transit Authority buses, but CBS would run an additional 20 king-sized bus ads for no additional charge.

The new agreement was inked and signed by Wednesday, April 21. The ads are expected to go back up by early next week.

Contacted by PipeLineNews for comments, Mr. Yerushalmi stated, "First, this is a victory for the First amendment, a no brainer...it's a teaching moment to the media...they just have to recognize that when they are bombarded by CAIR...they have to understand what these people are really after which is the Muslim Brotherhood's agenda...to destroy Israel and to achieve Islamic power pursuant to Shari'a in every country where Muslims put their feet."

©2010 PipeLineNews.org LLC. All rights reserved.

http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=yerushalmi4.22.10%2Ehtm

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4354