SIOA's Misleading Chicago Cab Ads
Way to go Chicago!
Chicago’s Yellow Cab is giving hate-mongers Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller‘s campain of hate ads the old Windy City boot.
The so-called “leave Islam safely honor killing” ad campaign was cynical from head to toe given that the phenomenon of domestic abuse and infanticide is not limited to Muslim families, and that within the Muslim community, has not exceeded 12 cases from coast to coast in the US and Canada.
Geller and Spencer had paid for ads through their newly formed hate group, SIOA, pretending to care for the victims of “honor killings.” But rather than advertise a counselling service hotline or guide potential victims to actual professional help, the ads slipped in a Spencer/Geller website that bashed the Islamic faith, painted all Muslims as evil, and had absolutely nothing to do with providing safety for victims as the ad falsely suggests.
Bravo Yellow Cab!
Geller and Spencer are willing to sink so low as to exploit the young female victims of domestic abuse, casting them as pawns in their rabid hate for Islam and Muslims. Worse yet, they had the audacity to think they could get away with it.
Yellow Cab is within their legal and professional rights to pull the plug on the offensive and misleading ad campaign, and while I am sure Geller and Spencer will, as usual, threaten a lawsuit to enforce their hateful ways, they have absolutely no legal recourse and will have to lick their wounds on this one.
Kudos to Chicago. I hope the rest of America follows suit. Let’s give the fraudulent “scholar” and his botox queen a good ol’ American wake up call.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
Call to ban anti-Islam ads
AAP
Yellow Cab Chicago has requested that a fleet of taxis remove controversial anti-Islam ads.
The ads, sponsored by the group Stop of Islamization of America, appeared on 25 Chicago cabs this summer. Beside pictures of young women who were allegedly killed by their Muslim fathers for refusing an Islamic marriage, dating a non-Muslim or becoming “too Americanised” was the message: “Is your family threatening you?” The placards also displayed the web address LeaveIslamSafely.com.
Michael Levine, the CEO of Yellow Cab Chicago, said the signs were offensive to the city’s taxi drivers, an estimated half of whom are Muslim.
The ads were carried by independent Yellow Cab affiliates, Levine said in a statement. The fleet owner was paid by a company that specialises in advertising atop taxis.
When Yellow Cab learned of the placards three weeks ago, it called the advertising company and asked to have the ads removed, according to Levine. Yellow Cab was told they were taken down, but found out on Tuesday that three ads were still running atop taxis.
“They will be removed,” Levine said. “Yellow Cab does not regularly approve advertising content carried by our affiliates, but we do reserve the right to ask them to remove ads that offend either the drivers or the public.”
Although the ads appeared to offer a safe haven for young women who want to leave Islam, critics contend the signs stoked fear among passengers and passers-by about the way many of the city’s taxi drivers worship.
Pamela Geller, a leader of Stop the Islamization of America, previously told the Chicago Tribune that Muslims are increasingly taking over schools, financial institutions and the workplace. Geller said the ads were directed at “Muslims girls in trouble, living in fear of their lives, struggling to find resources to help.”
Geller, who is also one of the leaders against building the Park51 mosque near the site of the September 11 attacks in New York, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
The Council on American Islamic Relations considered legal action regarding the ads. It chose not to after a story in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune “shed light” on the controversy, said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago.
“It’s long overdue,” Rehab said of the ads’ removal. “These ads are sponsored by a notoriously bigoted anti-Muslim group. It’s a classic case of false advertising.”
© 2010 AAP
August 24th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
These ads were truly despicable. The cab company had every right to remove the ads. The cabs are their property and they have a duty to protect their drivers (many of whom are Muslim) and customers.
August 24th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
These fools don’t realise that their vitriolic hate campaign is actually, in the long run, counter-productive. The more they attempt to spread their lies and disinformation the more ordinary, mainstream people are going to have some reason to look into Islam for themselves. How else did conversions to Islam quadruple after 9/11?
August 24th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Speaking of cab drivers, a NY Muslim driver was stabbed after a passenger asked if he was Muslim. And so it begins…
http://manhattan.ny1.com/content/top_stories/124338/police–cab-driver-stabbed-by-passenger-who-asked–are-you-muslim–
Make no mistake. Pam Geller, Robert Spencer and their ilk are responsible for violent backlashes against the Muslim community in America. The mainstreaming of Islamo-hatred will produce incidents like these.
August 24th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
What a disgusting pair of con artists that Geller and spencer make. I am glad Chicago decided to kick their butts out. You can’t mess with Chicago.
August 25th, 2010 at 2:24 am
Love the speed with which you guys are cranking out these articles/links. Keep up the good work!
August 25th, 2010 at 3:09 am
Sad about the taxi driver, but maybe the passenger was just nuts. Regarding the ad, the cab company is within their right to refuse it. Just what DOES Islam say about “honor” killings anyway?
August 25th, 2010 at 4:36 am
I know there are bad Muslims who harm their children and it’s very wrong but this ad will make people think that all Muslims are like this. My parents never harmed me at all. This is just like what the Nazis use to do with the Jews and this shows how much Spencer and Geller are Nazi like scums.
And to mindy1′s question
In Islam we are not suppose to do honor killings, usually this is done by some people’s backwards culture not Islam. In fact in some countries there have been Christians and other religious groups who also sadly do this but it has to do with some backwards culture and not their faith. One time there was a Kurdish honor killing but they weren’t Muslims but a different religion called Yazidi where a woman was killed by her family all because of this backwards culture.
It’s sad that there are people doing this but Geller and Spencer should stop saying that it has to do with Islam when Non-Muslims do this as well. No group is perfect. Hope this answers your question mindy.
August 25th, 2010 at 6:07 am
Mindy1, there is no concept of “honor killing” in Islamic jurisprudence. According to the law, no Tom, Dick or Harry can take the law into his own hands. Vigilantism is strictly forbidden and disapproved in Islam. So the few who do indeed kill their daughters in the name of “honor,” they are violating Islamic law and teachings and are to be deemed as murderers and given the capital punishment.
August 25th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Mindy1 –
Islam have no place for vigilante violence – which is what honor killings essentially are. Honor killing == murder, no matter how much ‘honor’ was perceived to be lost by the victim’s actions, or if the victim actually did anything wrong in the first place.
Many of these cases start as disputes over the choice of spouse that young people make, in defiance of their family. While Islam puts a high premium on kinship and harmony within the family, it doesn’t say that a choice of partner against your friend’s or family’s wishes is invalid or even sinful. As the hadith goes -
“There is nothing better for two who love each other than marriage.” (Sahih Al-Jami)
August 25th, 2010 at 7:10 am
@Mindy1
Here is a fatwa on the matter of ‘honour killings’
http://islamqa.com/en/ref/101972/
I think it is utterly disgraceful how they use the images of these MUSLIM women in their hateful propaganda campaigns. They seem hellbent on linking Islam to these acts, regardless of what Islam actually says.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:12 am
This all seems to be connected to the Rifqa Bary incident which has been shown to be a fraud and the equivalent of the Tawana Brawley incident, if not as sensational.
It does point out that letting the likes of Geller and Spencer control the conversation is as productive as allowing Al Sharpton to run his scam.
The tragedy is that if you listen to the likes of Glenn Beck and other rabies radio jocks you realize just how much hate has been generated by the likes of Geller.
Meanwhile, the real fight is in NYC and I’m afraid that the threats from the rabid right may be so virulent that the center is either moved or not built at all.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:51 am
“HONOR KILLINGS VICTIMS: Is your family threatening you?”
Kinda stupid, eh? Aren’t you supposed to be dead if you’re a victim of an honor killing? You can’t survive an honor killing or it isn’t exactly a “killing”… And I’m pretty sure your family won’t threaten you AFTER they kill you…
Maybe they want the dead victims to check their website from the afterlife. Still, it’s false advertising because they can’t help people who are already dead.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
YQS
LOL!
Are you a master of understatement?
KINDA stupid?
August 25th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
@YQS..thanks 4 bringin dat to notice..Just goes to show how desparate they are…after all they have to justify the money they receive from the right wing nuts.
August 25th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
@Mindy1
Honour killings are a cultural disease. They happen in Sikhism, Hinduism, Christianity et al. That’s not to say that they are somehow connected to any religion, it is just feeble mindedness (the family beilieve it brings shame on them). Honour killings are a heinous crime, there is no honour just indiscriminate killings. Of course the Islamophobes love to attribute this to Islam but there is no such thing in Islamic teachings.
August 25th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
thank you for answering my questions
August 25th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
They don’t care at all about Muslim leaving Islam or whatever. It’s just more b-stuff to shamelessly self-promote their own websites. Boo.
August 25th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
LoonWatch is pro-Islamist hate.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
@Rocky
A nice bit of slander used for anyone who opens their mouth against the rising tide of stupidity that eventually leads to violence. But then originality and common sense are things the nutters (like you) have never been good at.
Keep trying though. We wouldn’t want you to start whining about your ‘freedumb of speech’ would we..:P
August 27th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Honour killings are a product of cultures where there is no functional rule of law, such that order is maintained by means of the lex talionis. Nomadic cultures are honour-based because it is physically impossible for them to have the police, courts and jails that are necessary for a rule-of-law society. Criminal gangs also live by an honour code in relation to other gangs, because they have no recourse to the law for obvious reasons.
Although Islamophobes use the term “honour killing” almost exclusively to refer to murders motivated by improper sexual relations, gangland murders (and in an earlier era deaths in duels) are also types of honour killing in the larger sense.
The real reason why honour killings are more common in Muslim cultures is because Muslim territory contains more marginally-habitable regions hosting nomadic populations. In Turkey, honour killings are almost unknown among Turks, but frequent among (historically-nomadic) Kurds.
August 27th, 2010 at 10:28 am
“The real reason why honour killings are more common in Muslim cultures is because…
I appreciate the sentiment George, but is there evidence that honor killings ARE more common in Muslim countries? Once we understand that the romantic phrase “crime of passion” that we use to denote the way those cultured white folk choose to kill their spouses is basically == honor killing, I’m not convinced the Muslim world honor kills more than other parts of the world do.
August 27th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Good insight George! “Honor killings” also occur among non-Muslim communities such as the Yazidi Kurds of northern Iraq or Christian Pakistanis. It’s a cultural phenomena that isn’t sanctioned by Islamic law.
August 30th, 2010 at 4:58 am
I agree with George’s statements, to a point, but I would disagree about the Islamic world being more ‘marginal’. Parts of it, maybe, but its hard to make generalizations. Some Muslim majority areas like the Nile, Panjab and insular Southeast Asia are very fertile and rich in resources. Moreso than Europe, in fact.
I think a big part of it is that Europe (and later other powers like the US and Japan) have historically been rather self-serving, and that Africa, Asia and (to a degree) Latin America have been disadvantaged due to a history of colonialism and intentional exclusion. Unfortunately that includes most of the Islamic world, but also many Christian majority parts of black Africa, the Caribbean and the like, not to mention Hindu and Buddhist nations in Asia. All of these countries have problems that Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and the like don’t have to deal with.
Islam, and the Islamic world, faces somewhat more intense exclusion, which goes back at least to the days of the Ottoman Empire. Europeans sought to avoid trade with Muslim merchants. Europeans sought to limit Muslim influence. Its an old prejudice, but hard to deny when one looks at history.
So-called ‘honor killings’ exist in all cultures, and people have used religion and culture to justify them. It’s just easier for white American Christians to look the other way when confronted by spousal abuse and even murder. Yet right here in the US it does happen. Quite a bit. Remember Scott Peterson anyone? We have several of them in Illinois right now as we speak, two of whom are on trial. And the popular media has even coined the term ‘eraser killers’ for men who kill their wives and children.
And guess what? Most of them are white, middle class, and at least of Christian background. Yet its much easier to dwell on nameless, faceless anonymous Muslim ‘honor killings,’ all of them presumably happening overseas, because it is somehow more comforting psychologically. It portrays us as subhuman ‘others’. But it also insulates them from having to confront the fact that their neighbor – a white Christian like them – might very well be a cold-blooded killer.
August 30th, 2010 at 6:48 am
The areas you mentioned (Egypt, the Punjab and insular Southeast Asia) are agriculturally rich, but they lack the coal and iron ore which are the prerequisites for industrialization. These resource constraints made it almost certain that when the Industrial Revolution happened, it would be in Western Europe. Northern China also had the correct combination of resources, but Chinese development had concentrated itself more on the south of the country, as it was less vulnerable to attacks by the Mongols and other horse barbarians.
April 23rd, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Interesting article. I think the ads on the taxis are OK. Its good to have a little reminder here and there about how crazy and dangerous Islam is. Its so easy to think everything’s OK when your busy working and raising a family. There is just no time to monitor the terror and insanity of these people. And, the main point I guess is, this stuff isn’t just on the other side of the world, these people actually live in the civilized parts of the world right now! Makes you wonder, why are they even here? Who could have allowed this? Islam is just one of those impossible situations, like the Nazis back in the 30′s. Nobody wants to be the bad guy and beat them down until its too late and then everyone has to suffer.
Anyway, the taxi signs are just a gentle reminder. Or, maybe instead have Muslims put a GPS on themselves and register with a service like sex offenders. That way, at least you could choose to avoid dangerous areas like the way they organize the suburbs in Paris.