AN American group established to help Muslims escape the tyranny of Islam have been told that ads they put on Miami buses are to be pulled as they may be “offensive” to members of the Religion of Peace.



The ads, placed by the Â Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) group asks:

Fatwa on your head? Is your community or family threatening you?

The suggested answer is a visit to a website called “Leave Islam.”

SOIA, according to this report, is led by Jihad Watch director and author Robert Spencer. The ads had been purchased for one month and were “offered in defence of religious liberty.”

Said a commentary at the SIOA website:

Still think this is a free country? At least three of the bus companies that ran the dawah (invitation to Islam) bus ads turned down our ad. And Miami tore the ads down in less than 48 hours.

The way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, & Muhammad.

The SIOA ads were a reponse to a series of ads posted earlier by a Muslim group, claiming Islam was “submission to God” and:

Karla Damian, a spokeswoman for Miami-Dade Transit agency, said the ads would be censored immediately after complaints had been raised by Muhammed Malik of the South Florida chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

In a statement to the Miami Herald, he said Muslims reject :

Any extremist interpretation that sanctions the killing of anyone leaving Islam.

But Spencer hit back, citing reports of a specific threat against American teen-ager Rifqa Bary, who fled her Muslim family in fear for her life after she converted to Christianity.

A translation of the fatwa against the girl indicated that death:

Is a very normal part of Islamic law for apostasy and for every muslim its (sic) at honor to CLEAN the umma if Rifqa is dead.

Spencer added:

Muslims can run bus ads all across America inviting the clueless to convert to Islam, but we cannot make information available to Muslims who want to leave Islam.

On his Jihad Watch website, Spencer responded to a comment that the ads be “toned down”:

What is offensive about our ad? What is wrong with its tone? Apostates are threatened and killed all over the world. We offered them help. What would you suggest we tone down? What would you suggest we not say in order to please them? Why must we always play this game, instead of speaking the truth without fear? There is nothing objectively wrong or offensive about our ad. You’re falling into their trap, allowing them to define what is offensive and what isn’t. I refuse to do so.

He added:

And even if our ad were offensive to someone, so what? I am offended by all sorts of things. I wouldn’t dream of trying to get them suppressed because they offend me, and no one would take me seriously if I did. But Muslims are already a de facto privileged class, even in America – if I’m offended, no one gives two hoots and no one should, but if Muslims are offended, watch out! Heaven and earth will move!

The group that is allowed to suppress speech with which it disagrees, or which it finds offensive, is a group that can suppress dissent and carry out its will unchallenged. That is the road to tyranny.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

