On the September 18 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Medved stated that the “crucial issue” of whether “the violence and the bloodshed and the horror and the misery and ... the disgusting behavior throughout the Muslim world ... is ... based upon some problems within Islam itself” was “the subject of my conversation with the president of the United States on Friday, when I had the privilege of sitting with him in the Oval Office for 90 minutes.” Medved was apparently referring to a reported meeting held by President Bush at the White House, which also included conservative radio hosts Neal Boortz, Sean Hannity, Mike Gallagher, and Laura Ingraham. Boortz wrote about the event in a September 16 posting to his weblog. Medved asserted that “there are problems with Islam, as a faith, as a culture, as a vision of civilization, or actually a vision of barbarism in the world” and that these “problems ... go very, very deep.”

Later in the program, Medved confirmed that he believes there is “a violence problem in the Muslim world because that is an inherent problem in Islam” and that “a core foundational difference between Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, if you will, even Hinduism and Islam” is that Islam is “a primitive religion.”

From the September 18 edition of The Michael Medved Show:

MEDVED: All right. Is there anyone out there who denies the proposition that Islam is especially prone to violence? Isn't it obvious that Islam has a special violence problem? This is a crucial issue because it goes to the subject of my conversation with the president of the United States on Friday, when I had the privilege of sitting with him in the Oval Office for 90 minutes. The -- the question is: Is the -- the violence and the bloodshed and the horror and the misery and -- and the disgusting behavior throughout the Muslim world -- is that based upon some problems within Islam itself? I'm not saying here -- saying that every Muslim is a bad guy or should be held in contempt or -- I'm saying that Islam itself, as a system of ideas -- not everybody who holds onto a questionable system of ideas is a bad person. Some people try to take those ideas and bend them in a more positive direction. But I am saying there are problems with Islam, as a faith, as a culture, as a vision of civilization, or actually a vision of barbarism in the world, there are problems with Islam that go very, very deep.

[...]

MEDVED: But, look -- meanwhile, it should be obvious that part of what this entire incident underscores is that regardless of what you do and how reasonable you are, and what American policy is or what Israeli policy is, there would be a violence problem in the Muslim world because that is an inherent problem in Islam.

[...]

MEDVED: Isn't this bizarre? Doesn't this indicate to you just what a difference there is, I mean, a core foundational difference between Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, if you will, even Hinduism and Islam. Islam, a primitive -- I'm sorry -- a faith that would call for the assassination of a religious leader because of statements that he made, any religious faith that would call for killing of someone in the year 2006 because of public statements is, definitionally, a primitive religion.

Andrew Ironside is an intern at Media Matters for America.