Islamic group seeks firing of radio host

A national Islamic antidefamation organization called Friday for the firing of Boston talk-radio host Jay Severin after he allegedly suggested in his afternoon talk show that the United States should "kill all Muslims."

The statement -- made during Severin's show Thursday on WTKK-FM -- was allegedly part of a discussion about how Severin believes Muslims want to take over the world, said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

She said he then remarked, "I've got an idea, let's kill all Muslims."

The council was notified of the statement by a caller, Ahmed said.

"This type of hate speech affects everyone," Ahmed said, adding that she spoke with WTKK's general manager on Friday. "It causes a downward spiral of hostility toward interfaith relations . . . and our society should not tolerate it."

Matthew Mills, WTKK's general manager, declined to comment on Severin's alleged comments yesterday. But WHDH television reported that a WTKK representative said Severin would apologize on his show Monday.

Ahmed said that on Friday, Mills told her organization that the statement was taken out of context.

"He said that [Severin] wasn't talking about American Muslims, he was talking about Muslims outside the US . . . but I don't know how a statement like `lets kill all Muslims' can be put in any type of context that would be OK," Ahmed said. "We recognize the importance of free speech, but people need to be responsible."

Last week, Ahmed said, her group launched a campaign called "Hate Hurts America," asking people to listen to the radio for anti-Islamic rhetoric, after a surge in hate crimes against Muslims throughout the nation.

"We've seen such an increase that we feel the best way to deal with this is to monitor it, and try to correlate it with the anti-Muslim backlash we're experiencing," she said.

Severin's show airs Monday through Friday from 3 to 7 p.m.