Protesters Chant: 'Bring Fred Back!'

Protesters from the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force and other organizations marched the sidewalks in front of WMAL Radio in Washington and charged that the station is becoming "Shariah compliant" for censoring talk radio host Fred Grandy and his wife, Catherine Mann-Grandy.

James Lafferty of the VAST organization told WND that the dispute between the station and Grandy, whose program had criticized Islamic organizations and the advance of Islam's influence in the United States, was in alignment with plans by the Council on American-Islamic Relations to silence media they consider hostile.

As WND reported, Lafferty said, "In one cowardly move, WMAL has made history – it has become the first Shariah-compliant radio station in America."

Lafferty told protesters "the fight isn't over until we stop fighting," and declared, "We need to continue to point the light of public scrutiny on activities like this assault on free speech. We need to shed light on the involvement of groups like CAIR … the public needs to stand up and call this what it is and recognize the threat of Shariah to the United States."

The characterization of the situation by WMAL General Manager Jeff Boden, however, was different.

In a statement on March 5, he said the station did not do anything wrong.

A man who would only identify himself as "Jeremy" told WND, "I admire what WorldNetDaily does. Thank you for being here. We're very concerned about Shariah law in our nation and in our culture. It's antithetical to what our principles are. This is just a spontaneous demonstration about the firing of Fred Grandy from a radio station. … He's been very good about bringing news to light about the radical Muslims in our neighborhoods: in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. So we're very disappointed about that and I'm going to boycott this radio station and all their sponsors."

Lafferty added, "We made several statements about WMAL and what they've done in taking Fred Grandy off the air. Fred was talking about a real threat to the United States and our security. And rather than deal with what Fred substantively said, they are punishing him."

Lafferty said his sources have reported that Islamic elements had made plans to target Grandy, "and after they finish with Fred, they are going to go after Sean Hannity."

Grandy has said he didn't see evidence of CAIR involvement, but Lafferty explained, "I talked to other journalists and other talk-show people who said they had been through the same thing and had actually seen CAIR people meeting with their stations' management – in the same company."

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