Groups plan NYC subway ads urging tolerance

A commuter walks past an anti-jihad poster Sept. 24, 2012, in New York's Times Square subway station. / AP Photo

NEW YORK Two religious groups will hang ads urging tolerance alongside anti-jihad advertisements in New York City subways that equate Muslim radicals with savages.

The ads by Rabbis for Human Rights - North America and the Christian group Sojourners will go up Monday.

The New York Times reported that they'll hang in the 10 Manhattan subway stations where the anti-jihad ads implying enemies of Israel are "savages" appear.

The rabbis' ad says: "In the choice between love and hate, choose love. Help stop bigotry against our Muslim neighbors."

The Christian ad states: "Love your Muslim neighbors."

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On its website, Rabbis for Human Rights - North America said the controversial anti-jihad ads "are meant to increase hatred and discrimination against New York City's Muslims and to drive a wedge between Muslims and Jews," CBS New York reported.

"It's to the benefit of the Jewish community to partner with our Muslim neighbors," the organization's executive director, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, told CBS Radio station WCBS 880. "We know what it's like to be a minority and we know what it's like to be the target of discrimination, and that's why, as Jews, because of that history, we have more of a responsibility to speak out when anyone is being discriminated against."

On Wednesday, another group, United Methodist Women, placed pro-Muslim ads in the subway. They say: "Hate speech is not civilized."

The American Freedom Defense Initiative is behind the anti-jihad ads, which state, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority initially refused to accept the ads, but a federal judge ruled the message was protected speech under the First Amendment.

The MTA says the ads have been defaced 15 times, CBS New York reported.

[Thissalantine]

Wow seriously? Tolerance? Sure, I have tons of tolerance for Western Muslims who don't follow the 'convert or die' mentality of Middle Eastern Muslims, who don't want to see the religion based law system of Islam that is responsible for the beheadings of women and children all over the world (Shari'a Law), who don't think people who leave Islam should be put to death. I'm all about supporting Western Muslims not calling for women to wear the burka which has been PROVEN to cause respiratory health problems, I support Western Muslims who believe in educating women, I support Western Muslims who understand that FGM is torture and don't practice it, I support Western Muslims who think killing someone for practicing witchcraft while actively engaging in the practice of human slavery is WRONG. But if this is a call for politically correct tolerance based on the average ignorance of the West who ignore problems till they are cutting off your heads, then I am not interested. I don't blindly support ANY cause just because. Do your homework, people. Learn what Islam in the Middle East is about. Search 'arab witchcraft' 'honor killings' 'FGM in Islam'. And then tell the social preachers to blow fake tolerance out their pieholes.