Radio talk-show host Michael Graham was suspended by station WMAL-AM yesterday for repeatedly describing Islam as a “terrorist organization” on his program. Graham said he has been ordered off the Washington station, without pay, for an indefinite period while the station investigates the comments that drew complaints from a Muslim group, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Graham said on his mid-morning program on Monday that the fault for recent acts of terrorism lies not with Islamic radicals alone but also with Muslims generally because religious leaders and followers have tacitly supported extreme elements. “The problem is not extremism,” Graham told listeners. “The problem is Islam.” He also said, “We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam.”
Indeed, only yesterday, Graham expanded on these views in the Jewish World Review.
As you can imagine, his suspension doesn’t meet with the approval of the folks at Jihad Watch. “This is yet another sad story”, Robert Spencer comments, “and it bodes ill for our freedom in America: Graham’s words were inflammatory, but he had perfectly cogent and reasonable arguments to back them up.”