In response to the universal outcry over anti-Islamic ads on Muni buses, the "hate group" behind the campaign is buying even more inflammatory ads. And these ones target gays, according to reports.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative is a pro-Israel, anti-Islamic group that's been classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center and others, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
The group paid $5,000 for a series of ads -- which depict views "widely seen as anti-Islamic," according to the newspaper -- that were blasted by City Hall politicians.
So the AFDI is taking out even more ads, but these ones are "quoting anti-gay rhetoric from Islamic leaders," according to the newspaper. The trick, said group leader Pamela Geller, is to get the City Hall politicians who are gay and opposing the speech to realize that they should be supporting it.
One message, according to the newspaper, quotes a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood as saying that the punishment for homosexuality is death. All of the ads end with the line, "That's his Jihad. What's yours?"
Geller says the ads "increase awareness" about how Islamic Sharia law punishes homosexuality, the newspaper reported. But leaders like Theresa Sparks of the Human Rights Commission say the ads are intolerant.
Muni officials appear bound by the First Amendment to accept the advertisements, but said that they will donate the money to human-rights causes.
