New York buses set to display controversial anti-Muslim 'killing Jews' advert

Adverts that portray Muslims as engaging in "jihad" by "killing Jews" will be displayed on New York public transport after a court battle

A New York judge has ruled the city's buses will be allowed to display a controversial anti-Islam advert despite claims it could incite terrorism and violence.

The advert shows a threatening man with his face covered alongside the text "Killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah", a quote from an online video posted by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Below this text, the advert reads "That's his jihad. What's yours?"

The advert is paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), which is listed as an anti-Muslim group by civil rights watchdog, the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The advert has already been displayed on public transport in Chicago and San Francisco, and is set to appear on buses in Philadelphia after another court battle there.

The AFDI was set up by conservative activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who were banned from entering the UK to speak at an English Defence League rally in 2013 after Home Secretary Theresa May said their visit would not be "conducive to the public good".

the group describes itself as opposing "treason" by the government and media, "Islamic supremacism" and "the rapidly moving attempts to impose socialism and Marxism upon the American people."

The MTA opposed the adverts, claiming they could incite violence or even terrorism. They also cited their 1997 decision to change advertising guidelines, prohibiting adverts that demean individuals or groups of people based on their race and religion.

But yesterday, District Judge John Koeltl rejected their claims, saying the advert was protected as free speech under the First Amendment to the US Consitution.

The judge accepted the MTA's concerns, but said that they "underestimate the tolerant quality of New Yorkers", adding "it strains credulity to believe that New Yorkers would be incited to violence by ads that did not incite residents of Chicago and San Franciso."

In a post on their website, the AFDI called the ruling a "victory for freedom and individual rights."

The group has previously faced opposition towards their inflammatory adverts. In 2012, they won another court battle that gave them permission to display an advert on New York public transport that read: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."

The UK's buses are no stranger to similar advertising controversies. In 2012, an advert promoting 'gay cure' therapies, paid for by the anti-gay Core Issues Trust, was prevented from being displayed on London's buses after a last-minute intervention from mayor Boris Johnson.