The lawmaker claims he had no problem with the campaign, but finds the people sponsoring it unacceptable.
NEW YORK: A month-long advertising campaign, to be run here on subway cars, aimed at promoting Islam has generated controversy with an angry lawmaker sending a letter to the authorities asking them to stop the drive.
The lawmaker claims he had no problem with the campaign, but finds the people sponsoring it unacceptable.
The ads, simple black-and-white panels, will feature key words or phrases about Islam on one side of the panel such as “Head Scarf?” or “Prophet Muhammad?” and the words “You deserve to know” along with the Web site address WhyIslam.org on the other side.
“I have no problem with the ad itself, but I have a very, very real problem with those behind it,” Republican lawmaker Peter King said on Tuesday. “They are especially shameful because the ads will be running during the seventh anniversary of September 11, and because the subways are considered a primary target of terrorists,” he said.
The New York Post has reacted strongly to the ads, running a cover photograph of Wahhaj on Monday with the headline “Jihad Train” and posting an article on its site with the headline “Train-ing day for jihadists” and the first paragraph saying, “Allah aboard!” However, mayor Michael Bloomberg apparently did not share the outrage over the campaign, which also coincides with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
King expressed objections to sponsors of the campaign, among whom is Siraj Wahhaj, the imam of a Brooklyn mosque, who has been a ‘character witness’ for convicted 1993 World Centre bombing mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. Wahhaj, who has led a prayer before the House of Representatives, had appeared on a list of 170 potential unindicted co-conspirators in the 1993 bombing case but was never charged.
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