Weeks after News 4 discovered a Missouri license plate reading ‘JIHAD 1', another plate with a phrase some may deem offensive was discovered.
A license plate with the word ‘HAMAS’ was recently discovered. Hamas is a Palestinian group that is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
“Perhaps if the situation in the Middle East weren’t so volatile, Hamas wouldn’t have the same impact that it does,” said Karen Aroesty, who works with the Anti-Defamation League.
A similar plate in Brooklyn was eventually revoked by the State of New York in 2014 after people complained.
News 4 dug through the lists of rejected license plates in Missouri and Illinois and found some weird, gross and silly things that have been rejected.
Officials at the Missouri Department of Transportation of Motor Vehicles refused to give News 4 an interview, instead referring to a case from 2001. In the case, a plate had the word ‘ARAYAN’ on it, a word used by the Nazi’s to assert superiority.
The Missouri Court ruled the ‘ARAYAN’ plate was allowed under the right to free speech. The court said the state cannot censor a plate just because its message makes people angry.
The owner of the ‘HAMAS’ license plate did not want to talk to News 4. The owner of the ‘JIHAD 1' plate from last week’s investigative story said they felt the ‘HAMAS’ plate should be banned.