ACLU: “Most” Philly SEPTA riders “would probably agree” AFDI ads about Islamic Jew-hatred “racist and gross”

What is “racist and gross” about telling the truth about Islamic antisemitism? That Molly Tack-Hooper would say this, and think that most SEPTA riders would agree, speaks to how twisted and debased the public sphere has become, working furiously in the service of jihad and Islamic Jew-hatred.

I crafted those ads in order to counter vicious antisemitic ads posted by American Muslims for Palestine; does Molly Tack-Hooper think that the AMP’s ads were “racist and gross”? Of course not. The vicious blood libels against the Jewish state are met with sanction by the left, which is increasingly aligned with the jihad force. But our work is constantly attacked, smeared and defamed, despite all the heads rolling, body parts flying, religious minorities ethnically cleansed, slaughtered all in the cause of Islam.

Our ad was accurate. It told ugly, uncomfortable truths. We were right. We are right and despite this, the enemies of freedom — the worst being the press and leftist behemoths such as the ACLU — dig in their heels deeper.

“SEPTA Sued for Banning Ads About Housing Discrimination,” Public News Service, May 4, 2018:

PHILADELPHIA – Banning ads about controversial issues is a violation of free-speech rights – that’s the claim of a lawsuit filed against the nation’s sixth-largest public transit system.

The Center for Investigative Reporting has compiled data showing racial disparities in home mortgage lending in 61 American cities, including Philadelphia. But when it sought to highlight the results with an ad campaign, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority refused to display the ads on its trains and buses.

Molly Tack-Hooper, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, says SEPTA’s policies banning ads on political and controversial social issues turn the First Amendment on its head.

“Political speech and public debate get the most constitutional protection,” says Tack-Hooper. “But SEPTA’s policy essentially says the more important the speech, the less SEPTA wants it on its subways and buses.”

She says in letters exchanged with the Center for Investigative Reporting, SEPTA explained its policy as an attempt to keep out hate speech.

But Tack-Hooper points out that the courts already have told the authority it could not ban an anti-Muslim ad campaign sponsored by a group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative.

“Of course, even those AFDI ads, which I think most SEPTA riders would probably agree are racist and gross, didn’t bring the trains to a grinding halt,” says Tack-Hooper. “They didn’t have much of an effect at all on the operation of the transit system.”…