“I appeal with your presidency to ask the U.S. administration to drop the charges and set Amoudi free,” Qaradawi said in the letter

WASHINGTON , March 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A California radio station issued on Wednesday, March 17, an on-air apology for an Islamophobic skit that claimed Muslims have sex with animals, avoid bathing and are obsessed with killing Jews.

The apology by KFI AM 640 came one day after the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced that it had filed complaints about the skit with both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Clear Channel Communications, the station's parent company.

“Last Wednesday, we aired a satirical skit that was offensive to some members of the Muslim community,” said KFI Program Director Robin Bertolucci.

“For that we are sorry,” he said.

An initial request  by CAIR – a key Islamic civil liberties group - for an apology was denied, but the station apparently relented after receiving hundreds of calls, faxes and e-mails from concerned Muslims and people of other faiths who responded to a CAIR action alert.

“We thank all those who contacted KFI to express their concerns about the skit's outrageous and inflammatory content,” said Communications Director of the CAIR’s Southern California office Sabiha Khan in a press release.

‘Positive Results’

“This incident proves once again that positive actions on the part of individuals and organizations can bring positive results,” Khan added.

Khan added that CAIR-LA will continue to monitor KFI programming for anti-Muslim material and will inform the station's sponsors about any future Islamophobic incidents.

In the March 10 Bill Handel show on KFI, a pretend “Muslim” allegedly reading from the new Iraqi constitution refers to “hairy Iraqi women,” “lovely Japanese schoolgirls,” the “infidel custom of bathing on a regular basis,” and “civil unions” between Iraqis and “loving camels and goats”.

Throughout the skit, the mock-Muslim repeatedly stated “Allah be praised,” “death to the Jews” and “kill all Jews”.

Another part, he said, granted Iraqi men 72 virgins when they entered heaven, adding: “the virgins, however, will not be hairy Iraqi women but lovely Japanese schoolgirls.

A third section banned Western teachings from the country, including “the infidel custom of bathing on a regular basis”, the fake scholar claimed.

The performer added that a section of document read: “Consenting civil unions between Iraqis and loving camels and goats will be recognized”.

Islam stipulates no war between Muslims and Jews across the world, looks upon  Jews and Christians with special regard as peoples of the book and prohibits killing civilians regardless of their faith.

Islam also calls for Muslims to be as clean as tidy, with one religious saying stressing that cleanliness is part and parcel of the faith.

‘Tired’

Khan complained that Muslims are “tired of being stepped all over and being made fun of over airwaves”.

“No American should ever have to take this type of treatment,” she said.

The slur came a few days after Syndicated American columnist Ann Coulter, who frequently appears as a guest on cable news programs, made an Islamophobic remark in a recent commentary on Mel Gibson's new film “The Passion of the Christ”.

“Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity (as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed'),” Coulter claimed.

She alleged that “(Prophet) Muhammad's many specific instructions to kill non-believers whenever possible".

According to Islamic beliefs, the religion is against oppression and injustice and killing innocent people, whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims.

Coulter has made a number of similarly anti-Muslim comments since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Washington blames on Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Immediately following the attacks, she suggested that “we should invade their [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity”.

The Chicago-based syndicated radio commentator Paul Harvey, the most listened-to radio personality in the United States , claimed in December 2003 that Islam “encourages killing”.  

But after receiving hundreds of angry messages from Muslims, Harvey backtracked on its defamatory comments, praising Islam as a “religion of peace”. 

Following the September 11 attacks, hate crimes against Muslims witness a huge increase.

In October 2003, William Boykin, the new deputy undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, had claimed that Muslims’ God “was an idol”,  and that “our spiritual enemy will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus”.

To Read Transcript of Handel's Program, Click Here 

To Listen To The Skit, Click Here