WASHINGTON – Transport officials in Washington DC have blocked plans by an American free speech pressure group to have a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) displayed on the subway.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative wanted to display the cartoon, which won first prize at an event in Texas.
Two gunmen were shot dead by police outside the event earlier this month. Washington transport authorities on Thursday banned political, religious and advocacy adverts on the subway.
The transport authority in the US capital voted unanimously to suspend advertisements it describes as “issue-oriented”.
AFDI founder Pamela Geller strongly criticized the decision to ban the advertisement, describing it as an attack on free of speech.
Geller insists the cartoon is a “political opinion” which does not contain any violence.
Her organization, described by critics as a hate group, has run controversial adverts on subways and buses in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco as well as in Washington’s Metro in 2012.
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