In Boston, Massachusetts on Wednesday the MBTA, Boston’s Transit Authority (the T), is going to federal court in defense of a decision to keep anti-Islamic signage off Transit property. In light of the fact that they have allowed pro-Palestinian advertisement on their property in the past, they will have a tough time convincing the judge that they are not picking sides in the debate and are only concerned with the public’s best interest.
Matt Sienkiewicz, an assistant professor of communication and international studies at Boston College, became interested in the pending case because of his studies in media theory and global media cultures. “I wouldn’t say they have no leg to stand on, but I would say they have a difficult standard they need to prove,” he opinions.
The T will have to prove they did not infringe upon the First Amendment rights of American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) – the organization who wished to post the (so-called) anti-Islamic signage. “It isn’t impossible. There is nothing wrong with banning demeaning speech, but you have to show you are doing it consistently,” said Sienkiewicz.
The suit was filed against the T by the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), on behalf of AFDI and two of its members, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller in November. Spencer and Geller wished to place signage in more than 10 MBTA stations, which read, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”
The request was in response to pro-Palestinian advertisement the MBTA allowed in 80 locations, which read, “Palestinian loss of land — 1946 to 2010″ next to an infographic showing the shrinking land area.
The MBTA denied the AFDI’s pro-Israel ad because of “demeaning” language that violated their advertising policy. The pro-Israel group then filed an injunction in federal court to force the T to place the posters, citing its censorship of their pro-Israel advertisement and promotion of pro-Palestinian violated AFDI’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
“The fact that the MBTA displayed the anti-Israel advertisements yet rejected our clients’ advertisement clearly demonstrates that the MBTA either picked sides in the ongoing Israeli and Palestinian debate or caved in to political correctness,” AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel, Robert J. Muise said.
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