On the May 29 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing reports that six Muslim women were fired from a Minnesota tortilla factory because of dress code violations, host Neal Boortz asked: “Muslims, making tortillas? You know, this world is really screwed up when Muslims are making our tortillas, folks.” He added: “I mean, with all of the illegal Mexicans in this country, we can't find some Mexicans to make those tortillas?”
During his April 10 broadcast, Boortz asserted, “I would make a lousy Mexican,” while discussing his difficulty in handling a floor buffer. During the next day's broadcast, responding to the item that Media Matters for America wrote about his previous day's comments, Boortz said: “I'm on 'Media Morons' today ... because I said yesterday on the air that I would make a lousy Mexican because I was trying to use one of those floor buffers and it tossed me around ... when any Mexican worth his salt would be able to do that without getting hurt.” On the June 21, 2007, broadcast of his show, Boortz offered a suggestion he said he got from a listener's email, saying, “When we defeat this illegal alien amnesty bill, and when we yank out the welcome mat, and they all start going back to Mexico, as a going away gift let's all give them a box of nuclear waste.” He continued: “Tell 'em it can -- it'll heat tortillas.” Boortz also previously suggested that the U.S. government should “store 11 million Hispanics,” who entered the country illegally, in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans before deporting them to their home countries; said: “I don't care if Mexicans pile up against that fence [along the U.S.-Mexico border] like tumbleweeds in the Santa Ana winds in Southern California”; and claimed that non-English-speaking Latinos are “the ones with sombreros” and “bandoliers full of bullets across their chest.”
During the August 14, 2007, broadcast of his show, while discussing the alleged “Islamization of Western Europe,” Boortz claimed that because “Muslims don't eat during the day during Ramadan” and “fast during the day and eat at night,” they are “sort of like cockroaches.” On the July 19, 2006, edition of his show, Boortz claimed that “at its core,” Islam is a “violent, violent religion,” and said, "[T]his Muhammad guy is just a phony rag-picker." Boortz also said that "[i]t is perfectly legitimate, perhaps even praiseworthy, to recognize Islam as a religion of vicious, violent, bloodthirsty cretins."
From the May 29 broadcast of Cox Radio Syndication's The Neal Boortz Show:
BOORTZ: What's this? What's -- Oh. Oh. New Brighton. Is this Minnesota? I guess. A tortilla factory -- a group of Muslim workers say that they were fired at the tortilla -- Muslims, making tortillas? You know, this world is really screwed up when Muslims are making our tortillas, folks. I mean, with all of the illegal Mexicans in this country, we can't find some Mexicans to make those tortillas?
But six Somali women claim they were ordered by a manager to wear pants and shirts to work, instead of their traditional Islamic clothing of loose-fitting skirts and scarves. They refused. They were fired. Now, we have the Council on American-Islamic Relations involved in this. OK. The reason they were told they couldn't wear these loose-fitting -- they have a uniform standard at this food -- this tortilla factory to -- it's a safety thing -- to keep clothing from getting caught up in machinery, to reduce fire risks. The jobs don't belong to the Muslim women, they belong to the tortilla factory, OK?
Zachary Aronow is an intern at Media Matters for America.
