New York – An Egyptian-born U.S. columnist was arrested Tuesday for spray-painting an advertisement equating Muslim radicals with savages at a New York City subway station.
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Mona Eltahawy, 45, of New York, was arrested on charges including criminal mischief and making graffiti, police said. Her arrest was captured on video by a New York Post camera crew and posted online.
Eltahawy is a women’s rights defender and lecturer on the role of social media in the Arab world. She calls herself a liberal Muslim who’s spoken publicly against violent Islamic groups. She’s seen in the video spraying pink paint on the ad while another woman tries to block her.
“This is non-violent protest, see this America” Eltahawy said in the video as police officers were arresting her. “I’m an Egyptian-American and I refuse hate.”
Eltahawy hasn’t returned a phone message seeking comment on her arrest.
The ads — reading, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” — went up in 10 stations across Manhattan after a court victory by a conservative commentator who once headed a campaign against an Islamic center near the World Trade Center site.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York initially refused to run blogger Pamela Geller’s ad, saying it was “demeaning.” But a federal judge ruled in July that it is protected speech under the First Amendment.
Geller, executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and publisher of a blog called Atlas Shrugs, has said she’s not concerned that her ad could spark protests like the ones against the depiction of Muslims in the video “Innocence of Muslims.” Violence linked to the movie has left dozens in seven countries dead, including the American ambassador to Libya.
The ad was plastered on San Francisco city buses in recent weeks, prompting some people to deface the ads and remove some of the words, including “Jihad,” or holy war.
Geller said the subway ads cost about $6,000. The MTA said they will be up for a month.
It is remarkable how many people have not figured out that everybody has a camera in his pocket nowadays. Throw the book at her.
If I spray paint her car is that also legal as it is non violent protest
If she is American , perhaps she should respect our laws!
She asked why she was being arrested, as if damaging public property and assaulting the camerawoman were not crimes.
give her at lease one year in jail and than throw her out of this country.
As a reported isn’t she the one who has to protect free speech?
Look at the poster, all it says is “support Israel, Defeat Jihad”.
What is racist about it?
Typical Liberal mindset.
Deport her now! With her dear spray paint can!
My question is, who appreciates those kind of ads?
Its really not necessary, this is not going to make any new friends for Israel.
The audacity of a poster does not make it a license to destroy the image on the approved site. You have other avenues. This is what people who have no dignity do.
Another thing, I remember when the subways were a darn mess due to spray-can “artists.” Throw her in jail? I dunno. But give her a full dose of whatever the law calls for. Deport her? Probably.
In San Francisco people used stickers that could be easily peeled off to cover the offensive message. These subway posters are in no way “pro-Israel” any more than that horrible lame “Innocence of Muslims” video was “pro-Israel.” These people are hiding behind their claim of being “pro-Israel” when all they really want to do is hate on Muslims.
If she only has a green card she will be thrown out of the country.
Oh, wow. She sure showed us. LOL
Doesn’t she know the difference between vandalism and non violent protest? What kind of journalist can be so ignorant?
She thinks vandalism is the same thing as a hunger strike. This is sodomite logic. Jihad is in fact violent savagery, as any Hindu will gladly tell you.
This woman is a moderate Moslem despised by the hard core islamists! Google her and see.
I think the ad would have been more effective without mentioning support Israel
This looks staged and fake. Typical of Americans.
It said “defeat Jihad” not anything against the Islamic religion or Muslims in general. Just those that practice Jihad, which is the conversion-or-die practice that happens to be done by some extremist Muslims. The poster is calling Jihad “savages”, not Muslims “savages”.
Reporters are there to protect free speech/press. She is trying to take away someone else’s right to speak freely through the purchase of these billboards. But then claims “freedom of speech” by her destruction of them???
The unhinged woman is described as “a women’s rights defender.” Which makes her a Muslim equivalent of JOFA. Ironic, isn’t it?
Regarding this incident, I remember one at a museum in New York City years ago, where there is a statue of a cavalry soldier, with an American Indian leading the horse. The statue has been there for well over one hundred years. All of a sudden, an American Indian visitor claimed that she did not like the statue, as she found it offensive, and made the Indians look subservient. In protest, she threw some paint on the statue. I believe that she was also arrested, for criminal mischief.
Jihad is not part of any Judaism in any real world. We don’t try to convert anyone, in fact we’d prefer if you left us the hell alone. That was a very evil tactic, typical of jihadists who seek to ruthlessly slaughter all who stand in its way. It’s not just the Jews they hate, but they do hate us more because they’ve been religiously indoctrinated.
I mean sure, the nazis tried to exterminate us but they were cold and intellectual, not religious zealots. Worse, much worse.
So no government is against free speech. They just express their own views by suppressing everyone else’s.