Muslim activists rip, deface offensive advertising in Britain. (Hat tip: scipio americanus.)

LONDON (AFP) - British Muslim activists have stepped up a campaign to deface or rip down advertising billboards featuring scantily-clad women in communities with large numbers of Muslims, the media reported.

Sky television news reported from the English city of Birmingham that the campaign has achieved some of its goals as there were now few such billboards close to mosques.

The Advertising Standards Authority said that increasing numbers of posters were being torn down or painted over in predominantly Islamic areas, The Times newspaper reported.

Ads for perfume, hair dye, bras and television programs are among those that have been attacked, it said. Photographs of semi-dressed women are the most frequently targeted, with the offending body parts painted over or ripped off.

A poster advertising a television program called “Desperate Housewives” is the most recent target. The images of two scantily-clad actresses were torn from an east London billboard but three fully-dressed characters were left intact.

A website giving advice on how to vandalize billboards and listing potential targets has been set up by a group calling themselves Muslims Against Advertising (MAAD).

MAAD, based in Birmingham, gives an index of defaced ads in the city, including Levis, Wonderbra, PaddyPower, a radio station and a strip club.

It says on its website that it believes in “direct action” and “has paint and isn’t afraid to use it… There is no longer any need to cringe as you walk past a sleazy poster, we’ll improve it.”