»Reported by Jay Flannagan of WrestleView.com

On Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 9:33 PM EST

Earlier today we reported that UPN had informed World Wrestling Entertainment that they no longer wanted Muhammad Hassan on Smackdown due to the controversy surrounding his July 7th segment of Smackdown with The Undertaker.

WWE has issued the following statement on WWE.com about the Hassan controversy:

Due to the unfortunate terrorist attacks in London on Thursday, July 7, which coincided with our pre-produced WWE SmackDown! program, UPN has asked us to be sensitive to the usage of the Arab-American character, Muhammad Hassan. We have agreed with UPN, and have not had the character on SmackDown! since that date. It is uncertain as to whether or not the WWE will continue with this character beyond this Sunday’s Pay-Per-View, The Great American Bash.

Hassan is scheduled to fight The Undertaker this Sunday Night in a match for the #1 Contendership to The World Heavyweight Championship. As I reported earlier today the plan was to end the Hassan character during that match. The statement from WWE.com certainly seems to agree with what we reported here on WrestleView.com