Coulter: "Muslims smell bad"

Published March 10, 2004 11:56PM (EST)

Ann Coulter's at it again. This time, she's offending Muslims, something she's done in the past, but this one should make even right-wingers cringe. In a recent commentary on Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," Coulter wrote: "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')." Then she referred to: "(The Prophet) Muhammad's many specific instructions to kill non-believers whenever possible."

Now, if TownHall.com, a project of the conservative Heritage Foundation, wants to continue publishing this kind of material, that's up to them. But newspapers who run her columns and television programs that have turned to Coulter for colorful political commentary should consider whether this kind of pundit is what the public needs and deserves.

CAIR, an Islamic civil rights group, asked newspapers and cable news channels to reconsider giving Coulter a platform.

"We believe strongly in freedom of speech and support Ann Coulter's right to hold even bigoted and hate-filled views," said CAIR Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed. "But credible media outlets should not associate themselves with or serve to legitimize such overt racism and Islamophobia."


By Geraldine Sealey

Geraldine Sealey is senior news editor at Salon.com.

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