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Blogger silenced after remarks

By ASJYLYN LODER
Published December 16, 2006

SPRING HILL - A blogger was shut down late Thursday for telling readers, " ... we need to kill all Muslim kids. Starting now."

The Boca Raton-based Web host removed the blog from the Internet after complaints from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the group's Tampa chapter.

"It's frightening," Bedier said. "We were concerned about the safety of the kids in the area."

Vilmar Tavares, the Spring Hill author of the Right Wing Howler blog, did not return a call for comment Friday.

Bedier said he had been monitoring the site after a recent spate of anti-Muslim comments in Hernando County.

In late October, Mary Ann Hogan, a prominent local Republican and former state committeewoman, wrote a letter calling Islam a "hateful, frightening religion." State politicians condemned her remarks, and those of her husband, then-county Commissioner Tom Hogan Sr.

Tavares' blog included letters in support of the Hogans. But he went further, publishing lewd insults against Muslims, along with pictures of the Koran, Islam's holy book, in a toilet.

"After all, if Muslims are raising their ... rug rats to strap on bombs in order to kill us, it is logically correct to assume that in order to stop that from happening we need to kill all Muslim kids. Starting now," Tavares wrote on Nov. 29.

That posting prompted Bedier on Tuesday to contact Host Gator Co., a Boca Raton-based Web publisher, asking the company to shut down the site. Host Gator contacted Bedier on Thursday and said it had shuttered the site, Bedier said.

"He's inciting people to violence," Bedier said. "That was very frightening for our community members."

According to its Web site, "Any material that, in our judgment, is obscene or threatening is prohibited and will be removed from our servers with or without notice."

Despite the recent rash of anti-Muslim comments in the county, Bedier said he believed Tavares is one of a small group of isolated but vocal extremists.

Tavares, 54, of Spring Hill, is a co-founder of the Hernando County Concerned Citizens blog written by Alan Setelius. Setelius is an active member of the county Republican Executive Committee who helped coordinate the committee's get-out-the-vote efforts.

In the midst of the controversy over the Hogans, Setelius published Tavares' letter backing the couple. Setelius posted it on Nov. 3, with this introduction: "Vilmar and I started this blog together. ... Sometimes I cannot always put into words how I feel about certain issues because I worry about what people will think."

Setelius' blog still linked to Right Wing Howler on Friday evening, but all viewers could see was a one-line message: "This account has been suspended."

Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or 352754-6127.

[Last modified December 15, 2006, 20:59:03]