Controversy has been re-ignited this week as a series of new ads containing quotes used by terrorists have appeared on San Francisco Muni buses.
“Killing Jews is worship that draws us closer to Allah,” reads one of the ads, containing words attributed to the Hamas terrorist organization.
"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers," reads another, echoing the words of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The ads are paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) and feature Osama bin Laden, the Times Square car bomber and the alleged gunman in the Fort Hood, Texas, shootings accompanied by quotes about warfare and weapons linked to Islam.
“The purpose of our campaign is to show the reality of Jihad, the root causes of terrorism. Using the exact quotes and text that they use,” said Pamela Geller of the AFDI.
Several San Francisco city leaders, including District Attorney George Gascon, have condemned the campaign.
“San Francisco won’t tolerate Islamophobic bigotry,” said Gascon. “The only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to look the other way and do nothing.”
Geller said the ads closely resemble a separate campaign that ran on the transit system earlier this year, which sought to redefine and dispel negative associations of the term “jihad”, while advocating the cessation of U.S. military aid to Israel.
"City officials denounce our ads, but not the actual quotes from high-profile jihadists calling for holy war and genocide," Geller said in an email.
"Our new campaign focuses on how jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism."