Juan Williams, the National Public Radio news analysts faced the sack over comments he made on Fox news, which raised the debate over Americans attitude towards Muslims, post 9/11.

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesperson on the council on American-Islamic relations stated that through such comments, Williams was legitimizing racial profiling of Muslims. That some Americans thought it was justified to single out Muslims, denying them rights every American was entitled to, a clear sign of bigotry and intolerance.

In a later statement issued by Juan Williams on Thursday via the Fox News website, Williams stated NPR fired him for voicing his opinion. He added that the first reaction he had was a concern, on entering a plane and seeing people dressed in a certain way, the first thing that came to mind was that those people could be Muslims.

These comments were similar to the comments Juan Williams made on Monday with Fox’s Billy O’ Reilly where he expressed disquiet about the presence of Muslims on airplanes. He did add that just because one belonged to a religious faction this was not reason to stereotype them, essentially stating that not all Muslims are terrorists.

CEO of NPR, Vivian Schiller, expressed that news analysts and reporters on the network were not meant to express their personal views on matters. She pointed out Williams who had steered from journalist ethics on several occasions.

Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin issued a statement via Twitter. She said NPR defended the 1st Amendment Right, but one would be fired if they exercised it.

This follows recent dismissals of CNN journalists, Octavia Nasr and Rick Sanchez for voicing the personal opinions on their forums.

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