Anti-Islam ad belongs on buses, court is told

Posted: June 22, 2010

Anti-Islam ad belongs on
buses, court is told

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

An Ann Arbor group announced Monday it has
filed a request with a federal court seeking to
require a metro Detroit bus agency to run ads
aimed at Muslims who want to leave Islam.

The Thomas More Law Center, a conservative
legal group, filed a motion for a temporary
restraining order on Thursday that asks a federal
judge to side with a New Hampshire-based
group that often criticizes Islam. The Thomas
More center had filed a lawsuit against SMART
last month on behalf of the American Freedom
Defense Initiative, Pamela Geller of New York
and Robert Spencer of New Hampshire. The
plaintiffs are critics of Islamic extremism.

A SMART spokeswoman did not give any
explanation as to why the bus agency refused to
run the ad.

Robert Muise, an attorney with the Thomas More
center, said the bus agency is a government
entity and so it violated the First Amendment by
not allowing the ad to run. He said that similar
ads have run on buses in Florida and New York.
The ads read: "Fatwa on your head? Is your
family or community threatening you? Leaving
Islam? Got Questions? Get Answers!"

Muise noted that SMART had run an ad earlier
this year by an atheist group that read: "Don't
Believe in God? You are not alone." Muise said
that decision shows there is a double standard in
SMART's policies. He said that SMART's own
policy says it may "not censor free speech" and
is "required to provide equal access to
advertising."

Local Muslim leaders support SMART's decision.

"They surely have the prerogative to deny
carrying anti-Muslim ads in a locality which has
one of the largest Muslim populations in North
America," said Dawud Walid, head of the
Michigan branch of the Council on American-
Islamic Relations.

Contact NIRAJ WARIKOO: 313-223-4792 or
warikoo@freepress.com


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