ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — A Christian televangelist in Florida who harshly criticizes Islam and other religions said Friday that his late-night program is being pulled off the air because of pressure from a Muslim group.

Earlier this month, officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations wrote a letter to the TV station’s owners asking for an investigation of the show it broadcasts, “Live Prayer with Bill Keller.”

In a May 2 broadcast, the televangelist said Islam was a “1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell” and called the Prophet Mohammed a “murdering pedophile.” He also called the Quran a “book of fables and a book of lies.”

Associated Press, 24 August 2007

See also CAIR news release, 24 August 2007

Update:  “They’re just after censorship, pure and simple,” Keller said in an interview with www.bannedmagazine.com. “The crazy thing is all I did was tell the truth about Islam from the Biblical perspective. It’s a false religion and there was no prophet named Mohammed. He’s a false prophet… I’m just lost, don’t these people own remote controls? It’s past the point of being offended. They just want to silence people who take a hard Biblical view of the world.”