'It's Reprehensible to Put a Happy Face on Mass Murder'
Drew Zahn, WND — An advertising war has erupted over just what the Muslim word “jihad” means in America and why it’s important not to let the term be sugarcoated.And the latest volley in the battle is both sly and stunning.
The most recent flare-up began with a controversial series of advertisements from the American Freedom Defense Initiative on New York subway station clocks. The ads depicted the burning towers of 9/11 and a Quran quote: “Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers” (3:151).
Pamela Geller, the group’s executive director, believes the clock ads convey an important message about the immediate danger of jihad.
“Metaphorically it’s so powerful,” she explains in a new column on WND. “The clock is ticking, from a civilizational point of view. Bombs, at least in movies, tick and are set off by clocks. The urgency of our message is mirrored in the placement.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, however, called the ads “Islamophobic” and “bigotry” and responded with a series of bus advertisements of its own designed to put a more America-friendly spin on the Islamic practice of jihad.
When asked by WND if she was spreading Islamophobia, Geller said, “Truth is not a phobia. As soon as Muslims stop quoting the Quran and invoking Islam’s traditional doctrine of jihad to justify violence, I will stop calling attention to what they do.”
CAIR’s advertisements link to a site called MyJihad.org and portray “jihad” as merely a person’s goal or ambition, showing smiling Muslims and such innocuous struggles as staying fit or building friendships.
“My jihad is not to judge people by their cover,” states one ad. “What’s yours?”
Geller, however, claims the CAIR ads are “designed to distract from and obscure the true meaning of jihad.”
The word “jihad” is defined by Muslim apologists as the personal struggle of the individual believer against evil and persecution, yet it is also the term for a religious war against infidels undertaken by Muslims, a holy obligation often cited by terrorists as the reason for their violence.
[...] “It is reprehensible to put a happy face on mass murder, ethnic cleansing, honor violence and religious persecution,” she continues. “Our AFDI campaign shines the light of truth to break through the fog of CAIR’s deceptions.”
As WND has reported, AFDI has run advertisements on buses and other public areas before in a effort to educate Americans about violent nature of jihad and the dangers of “Islamization” in America, but efforts to have them banned by court order have been defeated. » Read More
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About the Author
Drew Zahn is a former pastor who cut his editing teeth as a member of the award-winning staff of Leadership, Christianity Today's professional journal for church leaders. He is the editor of seven books, including Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, which sparked his ongoing love affair with film and his weekly WND column, "Popcorn and a (world)view."