An Army reservist and Iraq veteran who works as a cabdriver says a passenger he picked up early Friday at a Northern Virginia country club accused him of being a terrorist because he is Muslim, then fractured his jaw in an attack being described by Islamic activists as a hate crime.

One does not even have to wonder whether the media or Islamophobes would react in a similar manner if Holmes converted to Judaism or Christianity and proclaimed to justify his actions through those religions!

We covered the #MyJihad ad campaign back in December, a campaign that seeks to reclaim the term Jihad from Muslim and anti-Muslim extremists alike.

Have you figured out yet what “anti-jihad” blogger Pamela Geller thinks of Islam? If the “savages” ads and the World Trade Center ads didn’t make the picture clear, you’re in luck: Geller and her group are returning to the Metro, this time with a campaign modeled on a pro-Muslim campaign currently in the system.

Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan, said he received a complaint last week about the image and met Thursday with the owner of Target Sports in Royal Oak, Ray Jihad, about it.

Many of the recent attacks have taken place shortly after well-publicised anti-Muslim hate speeches, argues author.

There has been a sudden uptick in the number of violent hate crimes where the victims are thought to be Muslim or “Middle Eastern”.

MyJihad.org bus ad featuring two volunteers, an American-Muslim and an Israeli-Jew. (Credit: MyJihad.org)

So you want to rebrand a word. It’s hard to think of a more difficult rebranding project than “jihad.”

Over at Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, Richard Bartholomew examines the responses by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer to theconviction of English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon on a charge of passport fraud.

Muslims are subversive jihadists. The Middle East is perpetually unstable. “Islam has bloody borders.” If you’ve already made up your mind, you’ll find a way to twist the facts to support your conclusion. And if the facts don’t do the job, you can always hire new ones.

These labels are used by laypeople and journalists alike, often using jihad as a synonym for “any violence undertaken by Muslims.” An extreme example is the ad campaign posted a few months ago on New York City buses, equating Muslims to savages and any opinion not supportive of Israel as “jihad.”