The cartoon won the first prize at a "Draw Muhammad" contest hosted by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (ADFI), a far-right anti-Muslim group. AFDI President Pamela Gellar announced on Tuesday that she had submitted the caricature to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
WMATA’s decision to suspend all issue-related or "advocacy" content from its property will effectively allow the authority to reject the controversial ad without doing so outright. Metro officials reportedly cited concerns that a Muhammad cartoon might make its bus and train stations "terrorist targets."
New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) adopted a similar policy in April when a federal judge ordered them to run another controversial AFDI ad. MTA’s policy banning any “advertisements of a political nature” allowed the authority to nullify the judge’s orders and reject AFDI’s submission.
