Israel Matzav

Turkey doesn't like this

Turkey's Daily Zaman is upset about the ad above which has appeared in the streets of New York under a campaign called My Jihad. In a story titled 'Anti-Islam extremist group depicts Erdogan as terrorist in public ads,' they complain about everything from a purported common law trademark violation for the use of the phrase 'My Jihad,' to a claim that a group whose raison d'etre is defending Israel is actually an 'anti-Islam extremist group' (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

A pro-Israeli, anti-Islamic extremist group, known for running anti-Muslim ads in the New York subway, has depicted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a terrorist in ads targeting the concept of jihad in Islam. 

The anti-jihad ads were designed by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) as a response to “MyJihad,” a public education campaign that seeks to share the proper meaning of jihad as believed and practiced by the majority of Muslims. MyJihad has been running various ads on buses and trains in cities across the US, in which it has tried to show the global values of Islam with such slogans as "My Jihad is not to judge people by their cover. What's yours?" and "My Jihad is to build friendships across the aisle. What's yours?"

The AFDI, widely known for its controversial attacks on Islam, apparently designed its ads in the same way but with the opposite aim. One of the ads shows the angry face of Erdoğan next to a passage from a poem by Ziya Gökalp, a Turkish sociologist and writer, that Erdoğan famously recited in 1998.

If Erdogan said it (which they admit that he did) and Erdogan believed and believes it (which he does), then what right do the Turks have to complain? All AFDI is doing is telling the truth  that's concealed beneath the 'My Jihad' obfuscation.

Labels: American Freedom Defense Initiative, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, MyJihad, Recep Tayyip Erdogan

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:25 AM