On Sunday afternoon, Washington, DC radio host Jerry Klein of WMAL was commenting on the Muslim Imams kicked off a flight. Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.
Among the callers:
"Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."
and:
Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."
Finally a half hour into his show, Klien revealed the game:
"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said. For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.
Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous."
This story actually led off the 11pm news on the Washington DC CBS affiliate WUSA the night it happened. They have the video here:
http://www.wusa9.com/...
A Reuters story came out today that refered to the hoax:
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Both stories were used in this diary.
But there was no other reporting on this from what I can tell. Even though it was quite an eye opener on how some view muslims in this country.
One other note, WMAL is the talk radio station that had a controversy last year when one of their show hosts linked Islam and terrorism. That host, Michael Graham was offered the opportunity to apologize by management, and when he refused he was fired.
UPDATE-12/2 I would like to thank everyone that has read and recommended this diary. It really shows the power of the net. A few hours after I posted it last night and it made it to the recommended list, Raw Story picked up the Reuters story on Yahoo News on their site. Other sites may have picked it up as well. Because now the story on Yahoo News is currently listed as the "Most Popular". Obviously here it has fostered debate, but the other sites also allow readers to post their views, and so many more people are aware of what Mr. Klein did last week and the issues that it raises. It is interesting to read those other viewpoints on the Yahoo message boards for example, since it is not a "progressive" site as we have here.
Just for clarification since it was raised in the comments, Mr. Klien describes himself as a liberal. I called him a "conservative" in quotes because the stance he initially took was similar to that held by many conservatives. (IE Glenn Beck)
Finally, I do want to add one more link to the story that was also pointed out in the comments section. It is Jerry Klein's page on the WMAL site which has a statement from him on the issue, as well as a press release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It also provides a full streaming audio or download of last weeks program. The link is:
http://wmal.com/...
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