During a discussion about “radical, crazy, religious Islam” on his May 30 broadcast, 630 KHOW-AM host Peter Boyles agreed with a caller's suggestion that the United States “need[s] to say, 'No more Islamic immigration.' ” Boyles also agreed with the caller's assertion that “for our purposes” Islam should be declared “a political ideology.” Boyles' statements represent the latest in a recent trend, documented by Colorado Media Matters, of conservative, Denver-based Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio hosts engaging in anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Challenging the caller's assertion that Islamic extremism derives from the Quran, Boyles asked the caller why “when the United States was locked in the Cold War in my lifetime, we didn't see” Islamic extremism. Boyles then compared Islam to communism, concluding that “from the time of the revolution, the Soviet revolution, communism is a religion. The comparison [between Islam and Soviet communism] is striking.”

Later, Boyles said to the caller: “There's 1.4 billion Muslims in the world ... how do you beat that birthrate?” The caller explained, "[T]he West, at this point, needs to just worry about saving itself," to which Boyles responded, “I agree.” The caller then proposed that “we need to say, ”No more Islamic immigration.' "

The suggestion that the United States needs to cut off “Islamic immigration” echoed the comments of Newsradio 850 KOA host “Gunny” Bob Newman, who on his May 8 broadcast asserted that it was “time for a little moratorium on Muslim visas, period.” Newman also said that “every Muslim immigrant to America who holds a green card, a visa, or who is a naturalized citizen [should] be required by law to wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times.” He added, “If they don't like the idea, or if they refuse, throw their asses out of this country.”

Newman's remarks on KOA -- which, like KHOW, is owned by Clear Channel -- prompted statements of condemnation from the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mountain States chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Friends Service Committee. In addition, his statements prompted the progressive group ProgressNow Action to launch a public action campaign that as of May 30 reportedly had resulted in four advertisers removing their ads from Newman's program.

Colorado Media Matters has documented numerous instances in which Denver-based, conservative Clear Channel talk show hosts and their guests have denigrated Muslims and the Islamic faith. For example:

• On May 14, Boyles smeared Islamic culture as “corrupt” and agreed with a caller who stated, “That is one culture I do not want to be associated with.”

• Discussing the Iraq war with a caller during his November 9, 2006, show, Boyles said, “I don't think that there's friendly Muslim nations out there by any stretch of the imagination.”

• During the September 6, 2006, broadcast of KHOW's The Caplis & Silverman Show, co-host Dan Caplis stated: "[I]f I'm sittin' on an airplane and there's somebody who looks like one of the 9-11 hijackers and they are sitting there praying out loud as we taxi, that airline darn well better remove that person."

• On the February 16 broadcast of Caplis & Silverman, right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel made baseless attacks while discussing a shooting rampage at a Salt Lake City shopping mall perpetrated by a Muslim refugee from Bosnia. Schlussel stated that "[e]ven though some [Muslims] are nice and some may seem moderate, everybody is part of a religion where the dominant spokespeople ... are extremists who support terrorism."

• KOA host Mike Rosen, apparently referencing a May 22 Investor's Business Daily opinion piece, distorted the findings of a recently released Pew Research Center opinion poll of U.S. Muslims. Rosen incorrectly claimed on his May 23 show that, according to the poll, 55 percent “of all U.S. adult Muslims” don't “support the war on terrorism.” In fact, the Pew poll didn't ask respondents whether they supported the war on terrorism; it asked, “Is [the] U.S.-Led War on Terrorism a Sincere Effort to Reduce Terrorism?”

• On the January 26 broadcast of The Gunny Bob Show, guest host Lou Pate claimed that Islam is “a violent religion” that “condones the killing of innocents.”

From the May 30 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

CALLER: Listen, Peter, you know, I think you do have some valid criticisms, but you tend to conflate a lot of issues into one.

BOYLES: Example.

CALLER: Well, just -- specifically, you won't even mention who the enemy is. You --

BOYLES: I just did. Call it radical, crazy, religious Islam.

CALLER: Well -- the problem is that Bush --

BOYLES: And where, and where does it exist in the world?

CALLER: It exists in America even.

BOYLES: Oh, I know that. But what I'm saying to, where do -- where does this come from? In other words --

CALLER: The Quran.

BOYLES: All right, let's, let's assume that you're right for a second. The Quran. So, are you going to have a war on the Quran?

CALLER: Well, there's one --

BOYLES: Legitimate question.

CALLER: Yeah. There's, there's that -- what we -- the war is eternal. In other words --

BOYLES: No it's not.

CALLER: As, as long as -- as long as followers of Islam exist, this will continue.

BOYLES: But, why was it when the United States was locked in the Cold War in my lifetime, we didn't see this? In other words --

CALLER: They were following a communist ideology.

BOYLES: No they weren't. Well, no, you're talking about the Soviets. But I'm talking about -- where, where does this really -- if what you say is true. OK, you want to say, OK, it's the war on the Quran. And you can, you wa -- if you want to make the equivalence that Mao's Little Red Book or the [Communist] Manifesto or --

CALLER: They weren't religions.

BOYLES: Oh, but, my God, they were. Listen, don't kid yourself. Absolute, absolute, absolute faith in communism is a, is a much of a religion as anything that you can come up against.

CALLER: But none of them got the traction that Islam has gotten.

BOYLES: What, the communism didn't get traction? My God, of course it did.

CALLER: Peter, if you're trying to say that the communist movement was as big and -- I mean, 14 hundred years Islam's been going on.

BOYLES: No, no, no. But, again, it, but I'm saying to you that sin -- from the time of the revolution, the Soviet revolution, communism is a religion. The comparison is striking. They have [unintelligible] --

CALLER: We stopped it. The people --

BOYLES: No, what happened: It failed.

CALLER: That -- right.

BOYLES: It's the God, it's the God that failed.

CALLER: But Islam, in order for it to fail --

BOYLES: OK.

CALLER: -- somebody's going to have to fight it.

BOYLES: All right, now, if you, I -- you know what? I agree in the sense of it. OK, so where does it come from? Does it come from the madrassas? Does it come from the fanatics? Does it come from really poor people? Or does it come from a vanguard?

CALLER: It, it, it says in the Quran that they have to subdue the world.

BOYLES: All right. There's 1.4 billion Muslims in the world -- estimate, pretty good estimate. All right, so how do you beat that birthrate?

CALLER: They're not all --

BOYLES: I'm not --

CALLER: -- jihadists.

BOYLES: Let's sup, let's sup --

CALLER: Most --

BOYLES: All right, let's suppose 250 million of them are.

CALLER: Right. Well, here's the thing --

BOYLES: How do you beat that birthrate?

CALLER: There's a -- there's a new idea called separationism.

BOYLES: The, the, there -- you need a -- what are you talking about, a church and state separation?

CALLER: In other words -- well, no, that the West, at this point, needs to just worry about saving itself.

BOYLES: I agree.

CALLER: So we need to say, “No more Islamic immigration.”

BOYLES: All right. And now, now, now --

CALLER: We need to also --

BOYLES: The French, the French are doing that.

CALLER: Right. We need to also declare Islam -- for our purposes it's a political ideology.

BOYLES: I agree.

CALLER: We remove it from this protection of religious --

BOYLES: I agree.