Over the last few weeks multiple news items made me wonder why hatred is mistakenly perceived to be linked with religion, whereas the realities are so different.
In April I read about the anti-Islam advertisement that started running on 84 SEPTA buses in Philadelphia. The ad made a false allegation which said, “Islamic-Jew Hatred: It’s in the Quran”. This ad was to run for four weeks.
However, it is of some relief to learn that for the time being this ad is disallowed as the MTA banned all political, religious and opinion ads from the transit system.
It was heartening to see them realize the clear distinction between free speech and hate speech.
Some days later, there was another unfortunate incident. Two shooters attacked an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas. This event was organized by none other than the same Pamela Geller, president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), who is also behind the anti-Islam hate-based ads mentioned above. AFDI is an anti-Islamic organization that is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
What was common in all three programs initiated by this AFDI? It is the propagation of anti-Islam sentiment and hate speech, done under the guise of free speech.
Without question, the violence at Garland, Texas, was condemned by all, including Muslims.
“Violence is never an acceptable response to hate speech, no matter how inflammatory and uncivilized that speech is,” said Nasim Rehmatullah, national vice president of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, USA.
Categories: Accepting Islam, Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Americas, United States