San Francisco runs controversial anti-Muslim bus ads, sparking harsh criticism

Those who use public transit in San Francisco, or just payattention to its ads, might run into the followingstatements:
"Killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah,"a saying attributed to Palestinian militant group of Hamas; "Thefirst thing we are calling you to is to Islam," an allegedquote by Osama Bin Laden; "The mosques are our barracks, thedomes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful oursoldiers," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan is portrayed assaying.
Other posters feature the Times Square car bomber and NidalHasan, the Fort Hood, Texas, shooter.
The campaign is sponsored by the American Freedom DefenseInitiative (AFDI), a group whose stated goal is to resist the“Islamisation of America.” The organization aims to show the"reality of jihad and root causes of terrorism, from the words ofjihadists themselves," AFDI Executive Director Pamela Geller toldAP.

AFDI’s website published a statement explaining their ad campaign:"Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas front groups, with eager help fromthe mainstream media, have embarked on a cynical nationwidecampaign to confuse Americans about the meaning of jihad, and makeus complacent about the threat of jihad and Islamic supremacism. AtAFDI, we're fighting back."
City authorities have vehemently denounced the ads as racist."San Francisco is a city that celebrates its diversity, andhateful speech and discrimination against our Arab and Muslimcommunities will never be tolerated," Mayor Ed Lee said onMonday. And San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said theads aim to "denigrate, marginalize and dehumanize our city'sArab and Muslim communities."

Pamela Geller, however, believes the ads are not hate speech, but areality check on Islamic aggression in which the slogans speak forthemselves. "City officials denounce our ads, but not the actualquotes from high-profile jihadists calling for holy war andgenocide," she said. "The purpose of our ads is to show thepurpose of jihad."
San Francisco's transit agency said a court ruling on the FirstAmendment has forced it to accept the ads.
The ads will run for one month, and were placed on 10 of SanFrancisco’s 800 public transit buses. AFDI paid $5,000 for thecampaign, money that will reportedly be spent to fund a study onthe impact of discrimination against the Muslim community. "We'regoing to take their money of hate and use it to do good," saidTheresa Sparks, executive director of the city's Human RightsCommission.
Similar ads have appeared on transit systems in Washington, DC,Chicago and Portland. The ads intentionally employ a similar fontand layout as a recent series of pro-Islam ‘MyJihad’ ads.
AFDI ran a similar campaign in San Francisco in August, andposted ads in New York City; the latest ran in September, in whichenemies of Israel were implied to be “savages.”