I know, I know—and in other news, it’s hot on the Equator, right?

But the comments made by Mark Williams, conservative radio host and chairman of the Tea Party Express, are beyond the pale. He calls Allah a “monkey god” and refers to follows of Islam as “animal of Allah.”

How is this okay? How can this be accepted, and even embraced, by his fellow Tea Partiers? The cognitive dissonance resonating from that group of people could be the cause of all the recent earthquakes. It’s certainly mind blowing.

I find it especially offensive because these days I find myself living in a predominantly Muslim country. I hear the call to prayer several times a day. I teach girls wearing jilbabs. And I hear discussions amongst people concerned with terrorism. In the last several years, Indonesia has seen deadly terrorist attacks in Bali and in Jakarta. The most recent attack was just last summer. The people I meet here certainly do not condone terrorism and they are mostly relieved that the government is actively seeking and arresting those involved. They do not believe that their religion grants criminals the right to kill.

There have always been racist assholes in the United States who have been willing to proclaim their opinions to as many people as would listen. The problem is that talk radio and Fox News have no filter to deny access to material that does not deserve a wide audience and if remarks such as these are widely circulated, it becomes socially acceptable to repeat them.

Mark Williams has every right to stand on a street corner and spew hateful screeds as the urge strikes him. That’s in the Constitution. I looked it up---freedom of speech is in the First Amendment. You know what’s also in the First Amendment? Freedom of religion. That means that an Islamic congregation is free, by law, to establish a mosque anywhere there is available land that they want to purchase.

Freedom of speech is a precious right that we should protect with all resources at our disposal. But I’d like to remind Mr. Williams that sometimes it’s more prudent to shut the hell up.