New York Times criticised over anti-Catholic ad

NYT/Catholic League/Washington Times

The New York Times is being accused of double standards after it published an advert calling on Catholics to leave their church, but refused to run an ad making the same plea to Muslims.

On 9 March, the newspaper published a $39,000, full page advert with the headline: 'It's Time To Quit The Catholic Church'. Placed by the atheist organisation Freedom From Religion Foundation, the ad was a scathing attack on the Catholic Church and encouraged Catholics to abandon their faith.

It said: "We invite you to free yourself from incense-fogged ritual, from ideas uttered long ago by ignorant men, from blind obedience to an illusory religious authority... why send your children to parochial schools to be indoctrinated into the next generation of obedient donors and voters?"

The Times explained in a statement: "we publish this type of advertising, even those we disagree with, because we believe in the First Amendment."

Four days later, two organizations: The American Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization Of America, sought to place an ad that mimicked the anti-Catholic one in almost every way but encouraged moderate Muslims to abandon their faith.

'It's Time To Quit Islam' the headline in the proposed ad read. It asked: 'Will it be religious freedom, freedom of speech, or back to the Dark Ages? Do you choose women and their rights, or imams and their wrongs? Whose side are you on?'

The paper rejected the ad. In a statement, Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said: "We made a decision to postpone publishing it in light of recent events in Afghanistan, including the Koran burning and the alleged killings of Afghani civilians by a member of the US military. It is our belief that fallout from running this ad now could put US troops and civilians in the region in danger and we would like to avoid that."

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said: "This shows the disparate treatment and the duplicity of The New York Times. You can trash some religions, like Roman Catholicism, with impunity, but you cannot trash Islam?"

For more on this story see: www.getreligion.org/2012/03/pod-people-time-for-liberal-catholics-to-quit/