New ads adorning ten of the city's buses are causing a stir for their anti-Islamic rhetoric and sparking a hate speech vs. free speech debate that's got Muni parked in the crossfire.

The ads feature quotes from Osama bin Laden, Hamas TV and Times Square jihad car bomber Faisal Shahzad and others, followed by the tagline "That's his Jihad. What's yours?". "Killing Jews is worship that draws us closer to Allah" one reads, while another quotes Osama bin Laden: "The first thing we are calling you to is Islam." The ads are a rebuttal to visually similar ads sponsored by the Council on American Islamic Relations that ran on Muni buses earlier this year. That campaign was aimed at reclaiming the word "jihad" from the violence and terrorism that many people associate it with.

D.A. George Gascon held a press conference denouncing the new ads as hate speech, even quoting Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to look the other way and do nothing."

You may remember the group behind the ads, American Freedom Defense Initiative, from last summer's similar anti-Jihad ads. They've issued a statement by AFDI Executive Director Pamela Geller denouncing backlash over the ads:

"Americans need to understand the threat they're facing. That is the point of our ads. The slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Algeria et al -- that doesn't warrant a statement, let alone a press conference from San Francisco authorities, but my ads do. Think about that. Hundreds of thousands dead, but it would be blasphemy to talk about. The slaughter in the cause of jihad is OK, but my talking about it is the problem."

Muni spokesman Paul Rose told CBS that the agency will be giving the $5,000 revenue from the ads to the Humans Rights Commission "to help support and encourage tolerance."

Meanwhile, AFDI has a Indiegogo "Jihad Awareness Campaign" that has thus-far raised $1,255 of its $50,000 goal.

[KPIX]