Pam Geller to Post New Islamophobic NYC Subway Posters On December 17

Culture

This poster will go up in 50 New York City subway stations beginning on December 17.

The hateful, inflammatory rhetoric is OK, the MTA says, because it was paid for. Not to mention the picture of the twin towers burning on 9/11 that I certainly don’t need to look at every day on my way to work.

The ads were created by Pamela Geller, executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and noted wing nut. Geller’s previous posters, with equally offensive text but missing the extra umph of an upsetting image, were defaced within hours of their appearance in the subway.

The disclaimer along the bottom of the poster is not enough to make it OK to display these posters on the subway. This is New York City, one of the most diverse cities on the face of the planet. We don’t need advertisements in the subway encouraging us to hate each other. I know from the constant fare hikes that the MTA is hurting for money, but there should be a line that they're unwilling to cross. And plastering hate speech through people's commutes for a few bucks should be that line.

I have to wonder how Geller would feel if everyone was judged by the lines about violence in their religious texts. What if some of the Old Testament’s more choice lines being animated with images of violence and plastered on the subway?

Such as:

“Anyone who attacks his father or his mother must be put to death. Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death. Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.” Exodus 21:15-17

Or the bit about working on the Sabbath being punishable by death. Especially since that one would apply directly to her:

And I can only fear that she’d be all too happy to use the same 9/11 photo alongside this text:

“But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” Exodus 21:23-25.