The Right Perspective


A popular northern California morning radio team was abruptly suspended Tuesday, after calling on their listeners to make cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to teach Muslims a lesson about American-styled free speech.

“Some of you people that are good with the computer – make an anti-Mohammed ad post it to Al Jazeera,” said Jack Armstrong of the San Francisco Bay Area morning team Armstrong and Getty on Monday. “We need to swamp them with ads until they grow up.”

The comments were brought about during a heated discussion about last Friday’s rioting in the Muslim world over a YouTube video defaming the Prophet Mohammed and Islam. “It’s absolutely unbelievable that we [the United States] have been put in a position where we’re apologizing [for the video], and nobody condemns them [for their violence],” Armstrong said.

Armstrong and Getty also mocked President Obama and the US State Department for what they described as an “apology” to Muslims about the video.

“Nobody delivers the incredibly complicated message of, ‘listen, you can burn this embassy or you can ignore it [the video] completely, the results will still be the same,’” added co-host Joe Getty. “Just settle down.”

“You apologize this time, and everything is going to be fine,” Getty said. “No, they [the Muslims] shove you back on your heels one step and take another step forward.”

The next day, fans of the popular radio due found a “best of” show and a terse “on vacation” excuse from radio management. Podcast archives of the previous day’s controversial show were also taken down.

It was only later in the day that it was revealed that local Bay area Muslims had complained to NewsTalk910, the radio station the duo broadcasts from.

“Sadly, at this time, that’s what he [Jack Armstrong] sees as selling,” local Muslim activist Tawfiq Morrar told area news station KTXL.



“We just ask you to respect other faiths,” Morrar said. “Just as in the Muslim faith, we don’t insult Christians and Jews and other prophets [....] A couple hundred [people] in Afghanistan doesn’t represent the 25 million residents of Afghanistan, that said, we know that Jack Armstrong does not represent the majority of Americans.”

Morrar, a Palestinian who graduated in May from University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, is an advocate from Muslim causes in the Bay area such as “confronting Israeli Apartheid” and support for Helen Thomas, was quoted last February during an anti-Mubarak demonstration in Sacramento. He is also the sole employee and president of Mamco Trading, Inc., a company listed as trading non-durable goods.

Media requests to Armstrong and Getty, their producer and radio station went unanswered. Their Twitter feed has also fallen eerily silent.

Fans have set up a Facebook page supporting the radio team.

UPDATE (9.26): Basim Elkarra, a spokesperson with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told CBS News that the local Muslim community has “been just trying to ignore it [the comments],” although the group is “open for a dialogue” with Armstrong and Getty.

Elkarra also dismissed the duo’s absense as “a ratings ploy” to the Sacramento Bee, adding that while “we don’t like some of their attacks,” the group respects their First Amendment rights.