Free Republic

Arab-American professional wrestler Muhammad Hassan, played by Italian-American Mark Copani for World Wrestling Entertainment, has seen his last day in the ring, according to a WWE spokesman. The smackdown of Hassan during last weekend's "Great American Bash," an annual pay-per-view event, came after UPN and World Wrestling Entertainment received several letters and protests complaining that the character was an offensive stereotype of Arab-Americans and Muslims. Hassan, whose storyline is that he's Arab-American born and raised in Detroit, rants and raves about being profiled and discriminated against, especially since Sept. 11, and is usually accompanied by other angry Arab-American men. An...

D.C. Watson: WWE’s Hassan character too accurately portrayed to succeed It appears to be a done deal. Mark Copani, who, for World Wrestling Entertainment plays the disgruntled Arab-American wrestler Muhammad Hassan, has tentatively been released by the WWE, and will be reporting to Ohio Valley Wrestling for “repackaging.” So, let’s see if we have this straight. A wrestling character, “Muhammad Hassan”, a Muslim character judging by the name, who during interviews, insults the United States, while also spending time interrupting interviews being conducted with other wrestlers, demanding the “special time that he deserves”, relying on his manager’s constant interference to...

Stamford-AP, July 22, 2005 12:32 PM) _ Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment is going to be limiting one of its made-up wrestling character's because of a clash with real world events. The WWE has agreed to remove an Arab-American character, Muhammad Hassan, from its popular Smackdown show. The issue was raised by the UPN network after the show featuring the character was aired two weeks ago on the day of the London bombings. WWE says it agrees and has not had the character on SmackDown! since then. However, Muhammad Hassan is still scheduled for this Sunday's Pay-Per-View, The Great American Bash.

Per Fox News...