This article was first Published on 10/10/2012 01:59 pm at – : https://www.huffpost.com/entry/commuter-threat-from-anti-muslim-subway-ads_b_1915725
Fox news had interviewed me on the topic, and I am glad they were able to show a few clips recently. Through the interview, I have urged the organizers of the subway campaign not to place the ad at this point in time, and I pray for the safety of passengers in the New York Subway from inciting the nut cases.
First of all, as Americans we defend one’s right to free speech, an enduring value of civil societies. No compromises need to be made; it is a God-given right of the individuals despite its negative consequences.
However, as a society, we have a responsibility to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our duty to track down the source of such hate and mitigate the conflicts and nurture goodwill.
The timing of the ad is wrong; it has the tit-for-tat element in it, what those ruthless ugly men did to our Ambassador in Libya does not justify this poster.
I am confident a majority of the subway commuters will laugh at it and move on, but I am worried about the nut cases and the consequential safety of the commuters. Here are the crime stats for New York, for 2010. Of the 19,378,102 New Yorkers, 19,334,235 were law abiding citizens, while 43,867 were booked up on aggravated assault; of the same number of people, 2,771 were rapists, and 866 were murderers.
We cannot blame the law books, New York State or the religion of the nutcases for the crimes they committed; it was them and not anyone else, because the other people, the 99.98 percent of the population have the same law books to follow, they live in the same state and follow the same religions. It is never the state, religion or the books, it is always the individual we need to blame.
The ads are subtle innuendos to the nuts; they are coded for the crazies to cross the boundaries of law and order.
We have plenty of nuts in the world, there was one who beat up the Jewish kids in subway four years ago for saying Happy Hanukkah, the nut who went on a rampage at Sikh Temple in Wisconsin confusing Sikhs for Muslims, and the loony who opened fire in Norway or the crazy who massacred fellow soldiers in Fort Hood, or the one who opened fire in Luby’s in Kileen. Those nuts or terrorists who killed our Ambassador and his staff in Libya and those who are defacing our embassies overseas are all a threat to the safety of the people no matter where you go, facts don’t matter to them.
It is dangerous to fellow Americans, particularly Muslim women wearing a scarf, Catholic women coming from a church, Sikh Women, the older Hindu women with part of the Saree covering their head, thenNon-Muslim women from Africa donning their cultural headdress. Does the city have a role in imbuing a sense of security in her people, or they on their own?
If a nut case sees the innuendo loaded Jihadi ad in the subway, and sees a woman next to it, be it a Muslim, Sikh, Catholic, Hindu or other, he is tempted to hurt that woman, the woman can scream that she is not a Muslim. Do the nuts know any difference?
I hope the Jewish Federation of Greater New York makes it clear that they did not authorize the ad to represent the interests of Israel or the Jews, and I hope the New Yorkers don’t fall for this trap to hate Muslims in the “innuendo” ads.