A skit that some decried as racist will be dropped from future shows run by the American Wrestling Federation, according to a Muslim civil liberties group that objected to accounts of the performance.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations of Minnesota (CAIR-MN) said it accepted an apology this week from the Elk River-based federation, which has run a series of wrestling shows at metro-area high schools this year.
In the controversial skit, performed last month during a booster club fundraiser in the gym of St. Michael-Albertville High School, a wrestler billed as an Iranian made a show of unrolling a rug and kneeling to pray, then insulted Americans as the crowd booed.
The skit portrayed Muslims and Iranians in an "inaccurate and bigoted" way, according to CAIR-MN. "Not only was the Muslim-Iranian wrestler portrayed in a way where he would be perceived as a bad/evil character, correlating this character with unpatriotic rhetoric is offensive to the nearly 100,000 Muslims in Minnesota. ... To promote your show as a 'family friendly' event suitable to be performed at a public high school is appalling and discriminatory," the group said in a letter to the federation.
SARAH LEMAGIE
