Will furor over Muhammad-mocking video spread to NY?

The conflict between the West and the Muslim world over an American-made video mocking the Prophet Muhammad is showing signs of spreading to New York, the heart of the Western-style capitalism.

Haunted by the memories of the terrorist attacks in 2001 by Islamic terrorists that collapsed the twin towers of the World Trade Center, authorities and residents of the Big Apple are jittery over another attack.

The New York Times and other media reported Wednesday that controversial ads depicting jihad as “savage” will be run as placed by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a pro-Israel organization.

One of the ads will say, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.”

The ads will also carry the slogan “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad” wedged between two Stars of David, which has fueled fears of inciting protests from the Islamic world.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority had initially rejected the ads, citing the sensitivity of the issue and the “vulgar” expressions used. The organization that placed the ads, however, sued the authority at a federal court in Manhattan, which ruled in favor of the plaintiff on First Amendment grounds.

In July, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of the Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that the authority violated the First Amendment rights of the group that sought to place the ad.

“Our hands are tied,” Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the authority, was quoted as saying by the New York Times. He added that the ads would appear next week at 10 subway stations in the city.

The freedom organization also attempted to run the same ads in Washington, D.C., but the transit authority there deferred the ads` placement “out of a concern for public safety, given current world events.”

The daily quoted Pamela Geller, the executive director of the organization, as saying that recent events in the Middle East had not given her pause “for a second” about posting the ads in New York.

She also said transit officials in Washington were “kowtowing to the threat of jihad terrorism.”

Muneer Awad, the executive director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was quoted as saying, “It’s perfectly legal to be a bigot and to be a racist. We want to make sure there’s a counter voice,” suggesting a possible clash.

In France, repercussions are intensifying over a French satirical weekly’s cartoons showing the founder of Islam, Muhammad. Charlie Hebdo’s Internet homepage went down Wednesday after an apparent hacking attempt, prompting a police investigation.

The Vatican condemned the cartoon as “fuel on the fire.” The Paris-based Syrian Association of Freedom filed a complaint against the magazine for inciting “discrimination, hatred and violence.”

Stephane Charbonnier, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, said he could not understand the lawsuit, adding, “I live under French law. I don`t live under Quranic law.” He said the magazine could draw Muhammad just as it could draw Karl Marx.

Charlie Hebdo said it print run of 75,000 had been sold out and that more copies would be printed Friday.

After the French government ordered its embassies, schools and cultural centers in some 20 countries to close Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, those in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya were closed Wednesday. France’s Interior Ministry has also banned an anti-U.S. protest scheduled for Saturday in front of the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

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