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Anti-Muslim Ads Go Up In Four Metro Stations

By: Elliott Francis // October 8, 2012
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A WMATA employee posts one of the anti-Islamic billboards in the Glenmont Metro station. A federal judge ruled Oct. 6 that the ads must be posted by 5 p.m. today.
Armando Trull
A WMATA employee posts one of the anti-Islamic billboards in the Glenmont Metro station. A federal judge ruled Oct. 6 that the ads must be posted by 5 p.m. today.

Metro has started putting up the controversial anti-Islamic ads after a judge ruled Friday that the agency could not refuse to post them. 

The ads, which will be installed at Glenmont and Takoma Metro stations on the Red Line and U Street/Cardozo and Georgia Ave/Petworth stations on the Green Line, are black with white letters. "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad," stated the poster being installed at Glenmont this morning. 

The ads were purchased by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which also paid to install the posters in the New York City subway system last month.

Metro had delayed posting the ads pending the court decision. Basing the argument on the First Amendment, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer said in a one-page opinion Friday that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority must display the advertisement no later than 5 p.m. today. 

Officials at Metro held off on posting the ads because of the violent reaction to the "Innocence of Muslims," video which mocked the prophet Muhammad and fueled protests in the Middle East, according to the Associated Press.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative sued last month for the right to display those ads in the Metro system. A lawyer for the group calls the decision "absolutely correct." The agency will comply with the judge's order, according to a spokesperson for Metro.

The ads have caused controversy elsewhere, including last month in New York City when a Muslim woman was arrested for spray-painting over the posters.

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