Must not fear Muslims

We read:

"Fox News has re-signed Juan Williams to an expanded role with the network in a multi-year deal, Roger Ailes, chairman and chief executive officer of Fox News, announced Thursday after National Public Radio fired Williams for his comments on the O'Reilly Factor Monday night, when he said it makes him nervous to fly on airplanes with devout Muslims.

NPR terminated Williams in the wake of a discussion he had with O'Reilly concerning the dilemma between fighting jihadists and fears about average Muslims.

"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country," Williams said Monday.

"But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

Williams also commented on remarks by Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad warning Americans that the fight is coming to the U.S.

"He said the war with Muslims, America's war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don't think there's any way to get away from these facts," Williams said.

NPR issued a statement Wednesday night saying that it was "terminating" Williams' contract over the remarks.

Source

There has been a big backlash over this hyper-correctness, with lots of calls for NPR to lose its government funding -- e.g. here. That won't happen anytime soon but it has definitely set the dogs on them. As public broadcasters, they should be open to all reasoned views -- not apologists for Islam.