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D.C. Metro suspends 'issue-oriented' ads from public transit

By Amy R. Connolly
A train speeds through L'Enfant Metro Station in Washington, D.C. on Jan.15, 2015. Officials banned all "issue-oriented" advertising from subways and buses. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
A train speeds through L'Enfant Metro Station in Washington, D.C. on Jan.15, 2015. Officials banned all "issue-oriented" advertising from subways and buses. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, May 29 (UPI) -- Washington, D.C.'s mass transit agency has banned "issue-oriented" advertising on commuter buses and in subway stations as the controversy over a cartoon drawing contest of Islam's central religious figure, the prophet Muhammad, continues.

The Metro's ban, which will last through the end of the year, comes after the American Freedom Defense Initiative announced plans to feature the winning cartoon from a Draw Muhammad contest in five subway stations and on about 20 buses. Many Muslims consider any depiction of Muhammad to be blasphemous. The move comes as a second Muhammad cartoon contest is set to begin.

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AFDI's president, Pamela Geller, called the Metro's decision "an end run around the First Amendment."

"These cowards may claim that they are making people safer, but I submit to you the opposite," she said. They are making it far more dangerous for Americans everywhere. Rewarding terror with submission is defeat. Absolute and complete defeat. More demands, more violence will certainly follow. The message is that terror works."

In early May, Geller hosted a Draw Muhammad contest in Garland, Texas that ended in bloodshed when two men, Elton Simpson and Nadir Hamid Soofi, opened fire outside the building outside Dallas, where the contest was being held, wounding a security guard. Police shot and killed both men. The Islamic State, also known as the ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, took credit for the attack. Geller planned to use the winning sketch by Bosch Fawstin on Metro ads.

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Friday night, Phoenix-area resident Jon Ritzheimer will open the doors to another Muhammad drawing contest and "freedom of speech" rally. A reported 600 people are expected to attend. The contest and rally will happen outside the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, at the same time prayer services will take place.

The move by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority comes as other cities tackle the same issue. In April, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority lost in federal court when it tried to exclusively ban AFDI ads from the city's mass transit system. The city turned around and prohibited all issue-related ads. Thursday, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which runs Philadelphia's mass transit, also decided to ban all advocacy messages after a judge ruled AFDI ads specifically could not be rejected.

In making the D.C. decision, the Metro stands to lose some 20 percent of revenues, about $2.5 million. If the ads were to continue, the agency would have brought in about $1 million. The AFDI ad was to bring in about $20,000. Still, board member said the decision was sound.

"I think there's a potential threat and a danger if we were to accept that ad," Metro board member Michael Goldman said. "Better to be safe than sorry. I mean, this is the nation's capital. If anything is going to happen, it's probably going to happen here."

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