Suspended talker gets support

Michael Graham

WASHINGTON – Michael Graham, radio talk-show host on WMAL in Washington, D.C., is getting support from coast to coast after being suspended for remarks critical of Islam and a lobbying effort by an Islamic group with ties to terrorism.

Graham says some 10,000 e-mails have flooded his radio station in support of him and critical of WMAL for its suspension decision.

Graham will be off the air next week, pending an "internal investigation" about statements he made during his midday July 25 show on the ABC-owned station.

Initially, WMAL stood behind Graham, but pressure was brought by the Council of American-Islamic Relations.

The Washington, D.C.-based CAIR is a spin-off of a group described by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front group" for the terrorist group Hamas in the U.S.

Several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terror-related charges.

Graham's suspension stems from calling Islam a "terrorist organization." Graham explained that when a significant minority of a group conducts terrorism and the general population of that group does not denounce it, it is safe to conclude that the group promotes it.

He drew an analogy between Islam and the Boy Scouts.

"If the Boy Scouts of America had 1,000 scout troops, and 10 of them practiced suicide bombings, then the BSA would be considered a terrorist organization," he said. "If the BSA refused to kick out those 10 troops, that would make the case even stronger. If people defending terror repeatedly turned to the Boy Scout handbook and found language that justified and defended murder – and the scoutmasters in charge simply said 'Could be' – the Boy Scouts would have driven out of America long ago."

Graham added that, "I have great sympathy for those Muslims of good will who want their faith to be a true 'religion of peace.' I believe that terrorism and murder do violate the sensibilities and inherent decency of the vast majority of the world's Muslims. I believe they want peace."

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