While discussing alleged al-Qaeda supporter Najibullah Zazi on 630 KHOW’s Caplis and Silverman Show, Craig Silverman Monday argued that people “who look like a Muslim or a Middle Eastern person” should have their purchases tracked. He said that the police should “send something out” to places such as Home Depot, telling individuals to report purchases made by people who appear to be Muslim.
Silverman added qualifiers. He said he had friends who are Muslim and that religion doesn’t mean that much because most people simply follow the religion they were brought up to believe in. But he said that as a result of the terror attacks of 9-11, we need to be especially vigilant when it comes to Muslim people.
Throughout the show, the hosts took calls from individuals who expressed their fear of Muslim culture.
09-21-09 Hour 2
Silverman: Should there be profiling on say people at the airport or should there be more surveillance on a Catholic church than a Mosque, yeah I think so….But Robert Spenser, and Professor Addicot and the 9-11 report and my understanding of what happened on 9-11 in this war we are fighting–there is definitely a religious component. So let’s not hide from that fact and the religion is Islam. And that has to cause us to be especially vigilant when it comes to Muslim people.
Silverman: Well, this solvent, this chemical that is apparently used to clean swimming pools and goes into making the improvised explosive device. There is suspicion that it might have been bought at a local Home Depot store. I guess that it is okay to rely on a 20-year-old clerk, where if he sees somebody who looks like a Muslim or a Middle Eastern person, to notify the police. But I would prefer that the police send out something to Home Depot telling the 20-year-old clerk, “Hey, if this happens notify us.” So I think that it is more what are we willing to set forth in our nation through our elected officials. And that is tough on our Muslim people who are just innocently buying something to clean their pool, but I am not talking about an invasion of their rights, just a notification so that we can make sure that nothing bad happens.
