MAPLEWOOD, Minn. (KMSP) -
Maplewood Councilman Bob Cardinal is responding to a shocked public after he accidentally forwarded a pornographic, anti-Muslim e-mail to a reporter on Thursday.
Cardinal said he meant to pass it on to friends because he was shocked by the content of the e-mail and he felt compelled to share it despite disagreeing with it.
Cardinal, a former mayor, sent an e-mail with a subject headline reading "Muslim's" and an attachment that was splashed with topless women. The forward urged "American hotties" to take part in "Walk Naked for America Day" next Saturday because "it is a sin for a Muslim male to see any woman other than his wife or daughter naked."
The e-mail says the call for public nudity is an attempt to "weed out neighborhood terrorists," and says "patriotic men" should gather on their lawns to watch.
In a phone interview with FOX 9 News, Cardinal said he felt the e-mail illustrated a need for integrity.
"As far as that email goes, I think there's lack of control on the Internet," he said.
Cardinal said he received the e-mail from a constituent.
"I would just like to say, people everywhere should be open about their lives and their actions. I think the world would be better off -- and it would be more open and connected -- if that were the case," he said.
Cardinal said he knows the Pioneer Press reporter who first exposed the e-mail transmission through his post with the city, and he said the forward went to her inbox by mistake.
"I communicate with her on the issues in Maplewood," he explained. "I was on another e-mail, and somehow, that one got clicked to her."
After talking with both that reporter and her editor, Cardinal said he thinks they made the decision to bring attention to the forward in order to sell papers.
