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MTA Will Run Controversial Bus Ad Against Ground Zero Mosque

By Julie Shapiro | August 9, 2010 7:50pm | Updated on August 10, 2010 7:23am
City buses will soon have ads on them condemning a proposed plan to build a 13-story mosque and community center near Ground Zero.
City buses will soon have ads on them condemning a proposed plan to build a 13-story mosque and community center near Ground Zero.
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Jennifer Glickel/DNAinfo

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

LOWER MANHATTAN — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed Monday to run a bus ad that decries the Ground Zero mosque and shows the flaming Twin Towers.

The ad juxtaposes an image of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center with a rendering of the planned 13-story mosque and community center, with the words “WHY THERE?” above.

"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 today after its review under MTA’s advertising guidelines and governing legal standards,” the MTA said in a statement.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed Monday to run this bus ad opposing the Ground Zero mosque.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed Monday to run this bus ad opposing the Ground Zero mosque.
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Stop Islamization of America

The MTA’s decision came three days after the ad’s sponsors sued the MTA for allegedly refusing to run the ad.

“It’s a victory for the First Amendment,” said David Yerushalmi, a lawyer representing Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the ad’s backers. “This ad would not have run but for the lawsuit.”

Assuming the MTA follows through and places the ad on buses, Yerushalmi will suspend the suit, he said. The ads could arrive in as little as a week, he said.

Pamela Geller, executive director of Stop Islamization of America, paid $9,500 for the ads and signed a contract last month with CBS Outdoor, the MTA’s advertising representative.

But as the ads were about to go to the printer, CBS Outdoor told Geller the MTA had objections, Yerushalmi said. After several rounds of edits, which included removing the flames, smoke and airplane, Geller got fed up and sued.

However, an MTA spokesman said the agency only received the ad last Friday afternoon. The spokesman confirmed via e-mail that the ad with the “original graphic,” not the later watered-down versions, would run on the buses.