Not, mind you, that the station doesn't have the right to do as its choosing with its schedule. However, the reason for that change is quite troubling.

A Christian televangelist 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 Muhammad a "murdering pedophile." He also called the Quran a "book of fables and a book of lies."

Council officials asked for equal air time for Florida Muslims to counter Keller's comments, but never got the chance.

The hourlong show, which airs nightly at 1 a.m., is broadcast on WTOG-TV, a CBS-owned station that airs the CW network locally. WTOG station manager Laura Caruso said the decision to end Keller's contract was a programming one, made by station executives and the televangelist.

But after speaking with CBS executives, the Islamic group claimed credit for Keller's demise. His last broadcast will be Aug. 31.

"They really based their decision upon our letter," said Ramzy Kilic, the group's civil rights coordinator. "They really did not know that Bill Keller was involved with this kind of anti-Muslim rhetoric."

Let's see -- Keller says they yanked the show because of Muslim complaints. The terrorist-affiliated Muslim group indicates that its protests got Keller off the air. The station, on the other hand, says that the complaints had nothing to do with it and that Keller agreed to the change. Is it just me, or does it appear that someone -- likely the CBS affiliate -- is lying here?

Mind you, I don't necessarily agree with all of Keller's theology, or even all of his comments about Islam. But he is accurate in his initial premise that Islam and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible -- and that since Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth and THE Light, an incompatible faith explicitly states that Jesus was not divine and was not crucified and resurrected clearly does constitute a danger to one's eternal soul. A book (such as the Quran) which purports to be divinely revealed and teaches falsely about Jesus is, in fact, a "book of fables and a book of lies." And while one can argue the Mohammad was not a pedophile based on certain cultural and social norms that prevailed in seventh century Arabia, it is clear that he and his successors over the next 1400 years often engaged in murder to advance their religion and to prevent the exercise of the human right to freely practice the faith of one's choosing.

In America, respect for the religious beliefs and sensitivities of others is not required. Indeed, WTOG-TV and CBS regularly broadcast material which is insensitive and insulting towards the religious beliefs of Christians and other religious groups. Only Islam seems to get this sort of hyper-sensitive treatment.

Could it be that the tendency of Muslims world wide to riot and murder when confronted with opposing voices is the reason for this disparity? And if it is, isn't such barbaric behavior sufficient reason in and of itself to denounce ridicule and belittle the Religion of Behead-The-Infidel and those who practice it?

H/T Stop the ACLU, Weasel Zippers

And on a related note, bravo to Salon.com for having the courage to host two weeks of Berkley Breathed's "Opus" which have been withheld from publication by many newspapers for mocking Islamism.

Posted by: Greg at 08:17 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 642 words, total size 4 kb.