Jolie Lee

USA TODAY Network

A bus ad declaring "Islamic Jew-hatred" and showing a photo of Adolf Hitler hit the streets of Washington, D.C., this week.

The ads are running on 20 D.C. Metro buses for four weeks.

The ads were paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). The organization has been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The AFDI ads feature a photo of Adolf Hitler with Muslim leader Haj Amin al-Husseini. The full text reads: "Islamic Jew-hatred: It's in the Quran. Two-thirds of all US aid goes to Islamic countries. Stop racism. End all aid to Islamic countries." It also features a disclaimer from the city's Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

Although many citizens might find AFDI's message offensive, such speech is protected under the First Amendment.

A spokeswoman for WMATA said it does not take a position on any third-party advertising.

"We may not decline ads based on their political content," said Morgan Dye, WMATA spokeswoman, in an e-mail to USA TODAY Network.

AFDI said it launched the ads in response to "Jew-hating" bus ads paid for by the group American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).

The AMP ads, which ran for four weeks starting in March, had stated, "We're sweating April 15 so Israelis don't have to. Stop U.S. aid to Israel's occupation!"

Osama Abu Irshaid, board member with AMP, told USA TODAY Network that his organization's ad was a political message only.

"It never was a bigoted message. It was to educate the Americans about foreign policy, but we never went after Jews or Christians or any group," Abu Irshaid said.

Abu Irshaid said AFDI's ad, on the other hand, targets a specific group of people, Muslims.

Pamela Geller, head of AFDI, said she takes issue with the characterization of her organization as a hate group. She added that she plans to roll out the ads nationwide, according to an e-mail to USA TODAY Network.

It's not the first time AFDI has put up anti-Islam ads. In 2012, a federal judge ruled that AFDI was allowed to post ads that compared Muslim radicals to "savages." Those ads appeared in D.C. and New York City.

In the USA, free speech offers broad protections. Only a few, narrow exceptions would apply to censoring speech, such as a message that would incite immediate, unlawful conduct, said Leslie Kendrick, a law professor specializing in the First Amendment at the University of Virginia Law School.

"Our doctrine on this says that we are more worried about the risk that the government will censor messages that it doesn't like than we are worried about civility and crackpot ideas," Kendrick said.

Europe tends to have free speech laws that are "more understanding of the civility side," Kendrick added. For example, Holocaust denial is banned in Germany and Austria.

Last year, Geller and her ADFI partner Robert Spencer were banned from entering the United Kingdom to attend a far-right rally. A British government official said the two individuals' presence at the rally was "not conducive to the public good."

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