IndiaPost.com - Ad campaign promoting Islam angers New York lawmaker

NEW YORK: A month-long advertising campaign, to be run here on subway cars, aimed at promoting Islam has generated controversy with an angry lawmaker sending a letter to the authorities asking them to stop the drive. The lawmaker claims he had no problem with the campaign, but finds the people sponsoring it unacceptable.

"I have no problem with the ad itself, but I have a very, very real problem with those behind it," Republican lawmaker Peter King said. "They are especially shameful because the ads will be running during the seventh anniversary of September 11, and because the subways are considered a primary target of terrorists," he said. However, mayor Michael Bloomberg apparently did not share King's outrage over the campaign, which also coincides with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"If you were to advocate becoming a Muslim, I assume the First Amendment would protect you," Bloomberg said. King, however, did not see it as an issue of free speech and expressed objections to sponsors of the campaign, among whom is Siraj Wahhaj, the imam of a Brooklyn mosque, who has been a "character witness" for convicted 1993 World Centre bombing mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman.

Wahhaj, who has led a prayer before the House of Representatives, had appeared on a list of 170 potential unindicted co-conspirators in the 1993 bombing case but was never charged. The Islamic Circle of North America, which is promoting the campaign says the ads, coinciding with the holy month of Ramadan, aim to educate non-Muslims about the faith and reach out to those interested in it.