After hundreds of angry messages, Harvey backtracked of earlier anti-Islam defamatory comments

WASHINGTON, April 17 (IslamOnline.net) – A prominent American Muslim civil rights group launched Saturday, April 17, a new campaign designed to curb anti-Muslim hatred on American radio talk shows.

The campaign, called "Hate Hurts America", is based on the conviction that the increasing attacks on Islam by conservative talk show hosts nationwide is not only offensive to Muslims and other people of conscience but to the entire country.

This "also harms our nation by fostering a climate of intolerance and bigotry," said Rabiah Ahmed, the communications coordinator of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Ahmed said in a press release that a recent rise in Islamophobic incidents could be blamed at least in part on pervasive anti-Muslim rhetoric on America's airwaves.

She cited four arson attacks on Muslim businesses in San Antonio, Texas, racist graffiti at a Lubbock, Texas, mosque and an assault on a Muslim woman in Florida.

‘Monitoring Instructions’

As part of the "Hate Hurts America" effort, Muslims will be given step-by-step instructions on how to monitor local and syndicated radio programs.

This includes reporting anti-Muslim hate, filing complaints with the media watchdog Federal Communications Committee (FCC), and contacting advertisers to register their concerns.

Ahmed said CAIR will also issue periodic alerts though its e-mail and fax lists to inform Muslims and others about which radio advertisers they need to contact.

Growing Radio Attacks

Michael Graham, a talk show host at 630 WMAL-AM in Washington, recently made an implicit call for violence against Muslims.

"I don't wanna say we should kill 'em all [Muslims], but unless there's reform [within Islam], there aren't a lot of other solutions that work in the ground struggle for survival".

Graham claims he was only referring to so-called "Islamists," but CAIR maintains the context of the quote indicates otherwise.

The group said that Graham strongly supported blocking an American Muslim security guard from a floor in a Washington D.C. hotel earlier in the day because he was "Muslim and Arab".

It quoted Graham as saying: "Oh, you're a Muslim, oh, you're an Arab Muslim, oh, you have a gun around Jewish people, whoa...given the belief system, yes, red flags do go way up".

Last month, a California radio station was forced to issue an on-air apology for an Islamophobic skit that claimed Muslims have sex with animals, avoid bathing and are obsessed with killing Jews.

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 his defamatory comments, praising Islam as a "religion of peace".

Official counts put at three million the number of American Muslims, but other estimates said they are more than seven million.