Savage: "[N]ot all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists happen to be Muslim"

Written by Raphael Schweber-Koren

Published

On his radio show, Michael Savage said that “not all Muslims are terrorists,” then falsely asserted that “all terrorists happen to be Muslim.” Savage stated: “I am a believer in all five of the world's religions. As long as they're peace-loving and are pro-American, as far as I'm concerned, all religions are equal.” He continued, “However, when you consider the fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists happen to be Muslim and that the 19 hijackers who destroyed the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were Muslim, mainly from Saudi Arabia, we have a very real obligation to remember that.”

On the October 9 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage said that “not all Muslims are terrorists,” then falsely asserted that “all terrorists happen to be Muslim.” Savage stated: “I am a believer in all five of the world's religions. As long as they're peace-loving and are pro-American, as far as I'm concerned, all religions are equal.” He continued, “However, when you consider the fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists happen to be Muslim and that the 19 hijackers who destroyed the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were Muslim, mainly from Saudi Arabia, we have a very real obligation to remember that.”

Media Matters for America has documented Savage's history of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab statements:

  • September 2008: Regarding Muslim immigrants to the United States, Savage asked, “Why would a nation that is as evolved as America, and as liberal as America is socially, want to bring in throwbacks who are living in the 15th century? Now you have to ask yourself, what's the benefit? What is the societal benefit of bringing in throwbacks, some of whom are no doubt terrorists, and some of whom are gonna produce children who will become terrorists?”
  • July 2007: Savage said that “when I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi,” adding, “That's what I see -- how do you like that? -- a hateful Nazi who would like to cut your throat and kill your children.” Savage later said that when a Muslim woman wears a burqa, “She's doing it to spit in your face. She's saying, 'You white moron, you, I'm going to kill you if I can.' ”
  • October 2006: Discussing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the continued violence in Iraq, Savage suggested that Islam is “a bloodthirsty religion that's practiced over there by a bunch of throwbacks, and we're gonna to kill 'em.” Savage called for the United States to say: “That's it, we're leaving them; we're killing them.”
  • June 2006: Savage read from a June 4 New York Times article about the arrest of 17 Canadian residents on charges that they were planning a terrorist attack. Savage noted that according to the article, one of the suspects is a “well-known and fiery figure ... in the Toronto area's South Asian community” and the imam of a mosque. Savage then stated that "[w]henever you see the word 'South Asian,' substitute the word for 'terrorist,' or reference to 'terrorist.' " Savage then said of the word “imam,” the title of the prayer leader in a mosque, “that's another code word for trouble-making bum who should have been thrown out of the country.”
  • April 2006: During a discussion with a caller he later described as an “ordinary Muslim,” Savage declared that based on the caller's views about the war in Iraq and fading phone signal, he must have been using a cell phone “made over there in a bomb factory in the Gaza strip.”
  • June 2004: Savage asserted that only when he sees Muslim extremists “hanging from lampposts in the entire Middle East ... with their guts hanging out, then I'll believe that there's a difference between radical Islam and the rest of Islam over there.”
  • May 2004: Savage called Arabs “non-humans” and “racist, fascist bigots”; asserted that Americans would like to “drop a nuclear weapon” on any Arab country; and that “these people” in the Middle East “need to be forcibly converted to Christianity” in order to “turn them into human beings.”

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

From the October 9 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: How about his relatives in Kenya? Mr. [Jerome] Corsi went over to Kenya to investigate his relatives in Kenya, and he was arrested by the Muslim leader of Kenya because Mr. Corsi uncovered the true birthplace, I believe, of Hussein Obama and the connections that exist between Barack Hussein Obama and this Muslim leader and what this Muslim leader said he would do after this election. And yet McCain says why should I care about this?

Well, as you well know, Obama's first father left him and his mother. And he was a Muslim. And Obama's mother then remarried with her new husband who was again a Muslim. And yet we're not supposed to say the M word. Now, as I said to you, I am a believer in all five of the world's religions. As long as they're peace-loving and are pro-American, as far as I'm concerned, all religions are equal. However, when you consider the fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists happen to be Muslim and that the 19 hijackers who destroyed the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were Muslim, mainly from Saudi Arabia, we have a very real obligation to remember that. Never mind that we've been told not to remember it by the both party candidates. Never mind that PBS -- which should be defunded -- tries to embarrass you every time you remember reality. I remember reality.