Sen. Guy Glodis

WASHINGTON: Democratic State Senator Guy W. Glodis of Massachusetts has angered Muslims and civil rights groups because of a flier he sent to fellow senators that says terrorist attacks could be deterred if convicted Muslim extremists were buried with pig entrails, according to an Associated Press report.

The senator sent the flier to 39 colleagues some weeks ago, suggesting that the U.S. could prevent terrorist attacks by executing “Muslim extremists” with bullets covered in pig blood, a related report by Agence France Presse said.

The flier tells the story of how Gen. John Joseph ‘Black Jack’ Pershing captured and executed 50 terrorists with bullets soaked in pig blood while he was a military governor in the Philippines in the early 1900s, The Boston Globe reported.

Several Muslim groups denounced the flier, the Globe said. Internet Web sites cast doubt on the authenticity of the incident described in the flier, with at least one referring to the description as a fictional claim.

“I didn’t write it,” Sen. Glodis said. “I just passed it along to my colleagues. I often share news items of interest with my colleagues,” he was quoted as saying by the Globe, which carried a report on the flier on June 27. The flier merely recounted a historical fact, Glodis said, and should not have offended anyone.

“I am outraged and I am offended, and I think that the senator owes an apology to his Muslim constituents,” Raeed N. Tayeh, public affairs director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, in Washington, D.C., was quoted as saying in the Globe report.

Shaik Ubaid, president of the Indian Muslim Association-USA told News India-Times that he was saddened by the incident. “It is very unfortunate and morally wrong and absolutely dangerous to single out any community for such slanderous statements.”

“It only promotes hatred. Members of all religious groups and immigrants living in the U.S. should take note of it and write to their Congressmen to stop such wrong propaganda by lawmakers,” he said.

The flier also outraged members of the Muslim American Society’s Boston chapter and officials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).