By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
A lawsuit against Detroit's transit agency alleges officials sold space for ads promoting atheism but censored a message offering help for those wanting to leave Islam.
The Thomas More Law Center filed suit yesterday against the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, or SMART, and several of its executives.
Thomas More's clients, the Freedom Defense Initiative and founders Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, had sought to purchase ad space for their message, "Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!"
The ads direct people to a website, RefugeFromIslam.com.
Get "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," autographed, from WND's Superstore.
WND reported the organization has placed ads on Miami-Dade Transit buses that were pulled down because of complaints from activist Muslims.
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The Miami ads, however, were restored later complaints from Geller, who blogs at Atlas Shrugs and Spencer, director of JihadWatch, through their Stop Islamization of America initiative.
Ads pulled from Miami transit buses after CAIR complained
Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, said about the Detroit dispute, "Muslim apologists rely on the fact that most Americans are ill-informed about Islam. So they easily get away with portraying Islam as a religion of peace.
"Americans have a right to know the truth – Islam is a religion of intolerance and violence. Traditional Islamic law prescribes the penalty of death if a Muslim leaves his or her religion," Thompson said.
The complaint alleges violations of the free speech and equal protection clauses of the Constitution.
A WND call to SMART offices in Detroit requesting comment did not generate a response.
The case cites the previous promotion of atheism by SMART, which sold space for ads reading, "Don't Believe in God? You are not alone."
"In Detroit, government officials grant atheists the right to express a view that God does not exist, not worrying about offending Christians," said Robert Muise, the senior trial counsel for Thomas More. "Yet, these same politically correct officials censor speech that might offend Muslims.
"Such blatant discrimination is offensive, and it violates our Constitution," he said.
The complaint included an image of a Detroit bus carrying the anti-God message:
Anti-God message on Detroit bus
But the agency refused to sell space for the following message:
Ad offering way to "Leave Islam"
"By reason of the aforementioned Free Speech Restriction, created, adopted, and enforced under color of state law, defendants have deprived plaintiffs of their right to engage in political and religious speech in a public forum in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment as applied to the states," the lawsuit alleges.
Further, the same actions deprive the plaintiffs of equal protection under the 14th Amendment, the lawsuit alleges.
Pro-Islam bus ads
In the Florida dispute, the ads already had appeared on the Miami-Dade buses when officials with the South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations pressured the transit authority to pull them.
A protest to the county attorney's office resulted in an agreement the ads should not have been pulled and a promise of fulfillment of the original contract.
Pro-Islamic ads have appeared on buses in other cities declaring Islam is "submission to God" and "the way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, & Muhammad."
Spencer cited the different standards.
"So Muslims can run bus ads all across America inviting the clueless to convert to Islam, but we cannot make information available to Muslims who want to leave Islam," Spencer wrote of the original dispute in Florida.
On his JihadWatch website, Spencer responded to a comment that the ads be "toned down."
"What is offensive about our ad? What is wrong with its tone? Apostates are threatened and killed all over the world. We offered them help. What would you suggest we tone down? What would you suggest we not say in order to please them? Why must we always play this game, instead of speaking the truth without fear? There is nothing objectively wrong or offensive about our ad. You're falling into their trap, allowing them to define what is offensive and what isn't. I refuse to do so," he said.
"And even if our ad were offensive to someone, so what? I am offended by all sorts of things. I wouldn't dream of trying to get them suppressed because they offend me, and no one would take me seriously if I did. But Muslims are already a de facto privileged class, even in America – if I'm offended, no one gives two hoots and no one should, but if Muslims are offended, watch out! Heaven and earth will move!"
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