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Monday, August 22, 2005 

ABC radio host fired for speaking out against Islam

Through the Radio Equalizer (and also Michelle Malkin), we find out that freedom of speech was villified again: the radio talk show host Michael Graham was fired from his job on ABC radio (following an earlier suspension that the network imposed upon him), courtesy of meddling from CAIR, which is a Hamas funder, for daring to speak out against Islam both on the program and on the Jewish World Review. He was fired for writing the following on JWR:
I take no pleasure in saying it. It pains me to think it. I could very well lose my job in talk radio over admitting it.

But it is the plain truth: Islam is a terror organization.

For years, I've been trying to give the world's Muslim community the benefit of the doubt, along with the benefit of my typical-American's complete disinterest in their faith. Before 9/11, I knew nothing about Islam except the greeting "asalaam alaikum," taught to me by a Pakistani friend in Chicago.

Immediately after 9/11, I nodded in ignorant agreement as President Bush assured me that "Islam is a religion of peace."

But nearly four years later, nobody can defend that statement. And I mean "nobody."

Certainly not the group of "moderate" Muslim clerics and imams who gathered in London last week to issue a statement on terrorism and their faith. When asked the question "Are suicide bombings always a violation of Islam," they could not answer "Yes. Always." Instead, these "moderate British Muslims" had to answer "It depends."

Precisely what it depends on, news reports did not say. Sadly, given our new knowledge of Islam from the past four years, it probably depends on whether or not you're killing Jews.

That is part of the state of modern Islam.

Another fact about the state of Islam is that a majority of Muslims in countries like Jordan continue to believe that suicide bombings are legitimate. Still another is the poll reported by a left-leaning British paper than only 73 percent of British Muslims would tell police if they knew about a planned terrorist attack.

The other 27 percent? They are a part of modern Islam, too.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is outraged that I would dare to connect the worldwide epidemic of terrorism with Islam. They put it down to bigotry, asserting that a lifetime of disinterest in Islam has suddenly become blind hatred. They couldn't be more wrong.

Not to be mean to the folks at CAIR, but I don't: Care, that is. I simply don't care about Islam, its theology, its history — I have no interest in it at all. All I care about is not getting blown to smithereens when I board a bus or ride a plane. I care about living in a world where terrorism and murder/suicide bombings are rejected by all.

And the reason Islam has itself become a terrorist organization is that it cannot address its own role in this violence. It cannot cast out the murderers from its members. I know it can't, because "moderate" Muslim imams keep telling me they can't. "We have no control over these radical young men," one London imam moaned to the local papers.

Can't kick 'em out of your faith? Can't excommunicate them? Apparently Islam does not allow it...
Here's also Brian's guest post on the subject on Michelle's blog.

Graham was very bold and fearless to speak his mind, and for this, the Disney owned ABC, which cares more about moneymaking with even Arab countries and their would-be reps, has the sheer chutzpah to go and throw him out, bowing to pressure from an organization that supports terrorism and racism. In his statement following his dismissal, he said:
The First Amendment and I have been evicted from ABC Radio in Washington, DC.

On July 25th, the Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded that I be "punished" for my on-air statements regarding Islam and its tragic connections to terrorism.

Three days later, 630 WMAL and ABC Radio suspended me without pay for comments deemed "hate radio" by CAIR.

CAIR immediately announced that my punishment was insufficient and demanded I be fired. ABC Radio and 630 WMAL have now complied. I have now been fired for making the specific comments CAIR deemed "offensive," and for refusing to retract those statements in a management-mandated, on-air apology.

ABC Radio further demanded that I agree to perform what they described as "additional outreach efforts" to those people or groups who felt offended.

I refused. And for that refusal, I have been fired.

It appears that ABC Radio has caved to an organization that condemns talk radio hosts like me, but has never condemned Hamas, Hezbollah, and one that wouldn't specifically condemn Al Qaeda for three months after 9/11.
For what they've done, that's exactly why I'd strongly recommend boycotting Disney's network, businesses and franchises. We cannot allow these so-called networks to stifle our First Amendment rights, to say nothing of the effort to find the answers to why terrorism and racism exist in our world. In the meantime, I'd strongly recommend contacting the network here and here to protest Graham's dismissal.

Others on the subject include: Power Line, La Shawn Barber, HC and Gen's Place, Booker Rising, Backcountry Conservative, The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, MoonbatMonitor, Jihad Watch, Front Page Magazine.

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ABC has done nothing whatsoever to Graham's First Amendment rights.

That's because it cannot. The First Amendment does not protect you from private or commercial backlash from something that you say. It protects you from government control over what you say. The government has not been involved here; hence, no First Amendment violation.

But do not misunderstand: it was a lousy decision.

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