Anti-mosque ads to run on NYC buses

Metropolitan Transportation Authority decides to allow controversial ads arguing against the proposed construction of a mosque near the World Trade Center site

Metropolitan Transportation Authority decides to allow controversial ads arguing against the proposed construction of a mosque near the World Trade Center site

Anti-mosque advertisements depicting a plane about to crash into a flaming World Trade Center will soon be displayed on New York City buses after the transit authority relented and agreed to the ads.

Down in the ground: The World Trade Center's tower two falls to the ground on September 11, 2001. File pic

The display asking "Why There?" is the latest attempt by opponents to block the proposed Cordoba House Islamic community center two blocks from the site of the attacks of September 11, 2001, carried out by the militant group al Qaeda.

The ads will begin appearing on New York City buses as soon as next week after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) approved them Monday, an MTA spokesman said.

Emotional outburst
The proposed Islamic center has generated emotional opposition from some New Yorkers who see the project as an offense to the approximately 2,750 people who died nearby when suicide hijackers slammed planes into the Twin Towers.

53 per cent of New Yorkers oppose building the Islamic community center and prayer space next to "Ground Zero," according to a Marist Poll issued on Tuesday, versus 34 percent favour its development.

Opponents of the mosque lost the most important battle last week when New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission refused to grant an existing building at the site historic protection, allowing it to be destroyed so that the 13-story Muslim cultural complex can be built.

After the landmark ruling, Bloomberg said "a handful of people ought to be ashamed of themselves" for opposing it.

"That sent a very clear message to individuals who take their marching orders from the Bloomberg administration. The MTA was simply acting in lock step," said David Yerushalmi, the lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative had bought advertising space on 26 buses for a month at a cost of $8,000 (Rs 4 lakh), an MTA spokesman said.

The group sued in federal court, saying the transit authority was violating their free speech rights by denying their ads and by asking them to first remove the image of the plane and then to remove the flames from the artwork. The MTA agreed to run the original advertisement.

"While the MTA does not endorse the views expressed in this or other ads that appear on the transit system, the advertisement purchased by a group opposing a planned mosque near the World Trade Center was accepted on Monday after its review under MTA's advertising guidelines and ethics," the MTA spokesperson said.

Ground Zero Mosque

Earlier, Sarah Palin had posted a note on Facebook calling the plan inappropriate. She had written, "Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand. Ground Zero mosque isu00a0unnecessary provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in the interest of healing."