Lynbrook Grad Behind Controversial 9/11 Subway Ad

A Lynbrook High School graduate is behind a controversial ad, which links the attacks of 9/11 to the Quran, on display in every subway station in New York City.

The posters, which are hung beside all 225 clocks in the NYC subway system, show the Twin Towers in flames alongside a verse from the Quran stating, “Soon shall we cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers (Quran 3:151),” reports the Jewish Star. Underneath there is a disclaimer from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority explaining that the MTA does not endorse this ad or any others that run in the transit system. 

According to the Jewish Star, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) and Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA) are behind the ad campaign, and both organizations are run by Lynbrook High School alum Pamela Geller.

Geller told the New York Times that the ads cost about $70,000 for four-week placement, but according to the Jewish Star, the posters have been in place since Jan. 7 and will remain on display until the end of February.

A native of Five Towns who studied at Hofstra University* but did not graduate from the school, Geller is described on her Web site, "Atlas Shrugs," as the executive director of AFDI and SIOA. She is also the author of Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance (WND Books) and The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America, as well as a regular columnist for World Net Daily, the American Thinker, and other publications.

Earlier this month, the Queens Village Republican Club, the oldest Republican club in America, honored Geller as the “American Patriot of the Year” and the Creative Zionist Coalition gave her the Queen Esther Award for Jewish Heroism.

Geller also received the Annie Taylor Award for Courage in 2010 from the David Horowitz Freedom Center. According to Geller's bio, in October 2011, the United States Marine Corps presented her with the flag flown on Sept. 11, 2011 over Camp Leatherneck, "amid the battlefields of Afghanistan during decisive operations against enemy forces in Helmand Province." 

Speaking about why she chose the space near the subway clocks for this ad campaign, Geller told the New York Times, “because metaphorically it’s so powerful. The clock is ticking, from a civilizational point of view.”

*A previous version of this story described Geller as a Hofstra University graduate. While she studied at the college, she did not graduate from Hofstra. Patch regrets the error.