Muslim civil rights groups and community organisations have condemned a series of anti-Islamic advertisements that will be appearing in New York's subway stations next week.

The ads had initially been rejected by the city's Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) but were later allowed after a legal appeal ruled them to be expressions of freedom of speech. One ad reads: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad."

The ads are set to appear in at least 10 of the city's 400 subways stations and have been designed and paid for by the controversial American Freedom Defence Initiative, which is led by outspoken anti-Islamist activist Pamela Geller. The AFDI has been termed an "active anti-Muslim group" by the civil rights watch dog organisation the Southern Poverty Law Centre.

"You are talking about people like me being called a "savage"," said Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. "It is all bubbling up. I know there is freedom of speech, but with freedom of speech comes responsibility. This promotes hate."

The AFDI first came to prominence during a prolonged fight about the building of an Islamic cultural centre in downtown Manhattan. Its critics dubbed the project a "Ground Zero mosque" and waged a high-profile campaign against it that many said was Islamaphobic. The SPLC termed Geller "the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead."

Ads similar to the ones set to appear in New York have already been put on buses in San Francisco. However, the local transport authority in the city, known as Muni, donated the funds raised by the ad to the city's Human Rights Commission and also ran their own ad next to it that stated: "Muni doesn't support this message." The AFDI has also sought to run the ads in Washington DC but authorities there have delayed them for public safety concerns.

Muslim civil rights groups said the ads were coming at an especially sensitive time as world politics are already being rocked by violent protests and attacks on American embassies in the wake of the production of an anti-Islamic film made by an Egyptian Coptic Christian living in California. It also comes after several high-profile incidents in the US, including the burning of a mosque in Joplin, Missouri. "They add to the overall picture of anti-Muslim feeling that is growing up in our nation," said Ibrahim Hooper, a director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The renewed controversy over the ads also comes on the same day as a major global report by the Pew Research Centre identified a rise of religious intolerance worldwide, including in the US. On the two measures the survey used – called "social hostility" and "government restrictions" - the US moved up the scale for the first time in both areas. When it came to official restrictions the US went from a low category to moderate, but when it came to the social hostilities index the country went from the lower end of the moderate scale to the upper end.

Guardian, 20 September 2012

See also "Controversial 'Defeat Jihad' ad to appear in NYC subways", CNN, 19 September 2012

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BALLWIN — Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders joined civil rights leaders here this morning in denouncing recent attacks against mosques around the country. They say that kind of violence represents intolerance and a hatred of Muslims, and they worry it escalates during election season.

"This is a result of an atmosphere of hate that is being created by a small group of radical Islamophobes within this country," said Faizan Syed, executive director of the St. Louis chapter of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). Ghazala Hayat, with the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, added: "We also see, usually the year of election, this rhetoric goes up."

At a news conference, they were joined by Barbara Jennings, with the Coalition of Catholic Sisters; Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg, president of the Rabbinical Association; and civil rights leaders including Brenda Jones of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and Karen Aroesty of the Anti-Defamation League.

A July 4 arson fire damaged a mosque in Joplin, Mo., and a second fire on Aug. 6 destroyed it. The second fire has been labeled suspicious. An investigation continues.

The national group CAIR is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the attempted arson on July 4. Syed said the group had planned Wednesday to announce an increase in that reward to include the Aug. 6 fire, but he said they would wait until officials confirm that it was arson.

Syed said the St. Louis group has contacted Islamic centers in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma to warn them to beef up security measures, during Friday prayers and other times. He said what happened to the mosque outside Joplin underscored the anger sometimes directed toward such centers. He said that mosque had been targeted even before the arson attempt in July. Shotgun shells had been fired at the center's mailbox and people driving by had yelled profanities at children, he said.

Meanwhile, he said the mosque there will rebuild, thanks to a national fundraising campaign. He said about $400,000 had been raised in a short time, but that it will take close to $1.4 million to rebuild in or near Joplin. "We are really heartened by the response by non-Muslims to raise money so quickly," Hayat added.

St Louis Post-Dispatch, 15 August 2012

See also "Joplin, Mo., mosque fire called evidence of hatred", Associated Press, 15 August 2012

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Pauline Marois is promising to end Quebec's reasonable accommodation debate if she is elected premier on Sept. 4.

With a new Quebec Charter of Secularism, a Parti Quebecois government would seek to strike a balance between protecting the province's values and allowing for different culture to interact.

Under the proposed charter, civil servants would be barred from wearing any religious symbols, including the controversial wear of the hijab. The law would also prohibit citizens from refusing to be served by a member of the opposite sex.

"In Quebec, the state will be neutral. That is absolutely important. Next, the equality between men and women is a value that is not negotiable," said Marois, at a campaign stop in Trois-Riveries.

Despite the rhetoric, the party leader said that Quebec's cultural symbols would not be impacted, including Christmas trees and the crucifix that has hung in the National Assembly since 1936. "We're not denying our past," said Marois.

CTV News, 14 August 2012

See also Hamilton Spectator, 14 August 2012

As with the hijab ban in French schools, the rule against civil servants wearing religious symbols would not apply to Christians wearing a crucifix necklace.

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It's sometimes easy — too easy — to think, talk or write about the assault on civil liberties in the United States, and related injustices, and conceive of them as abstractions. Two weeks ago, the Editorial Page Editor of The New York Times, Andrew Rosenthal, wrote that ever since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has created "what's essentially a separate justice system for Muslims." That should be an extraordinary observation: creating a radically different – and more oppressive – set of rules, laws and punishments for a class of people in the United States based on their religious affiliation is a disgrace of historic proportion. Yet here we have someone occupying one of the most establishment media positions in the country matter-of-factly observing that this is exactly the state of affairs that exists on American soil, and it prompts little notice, let alone protest.

Glenn Greenwald puts some names – Maher Arar, Tariq Ramadan, Sami Al-Arian, James Yee, Gulet Mohamed, Kalifah Al-Akili among them – to the US state's suppression of Muslim civil liberties.

Salon, 16 April 2012

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