TV producers looking to do Married Women’s Sex Partysegments on supporters of the Islamic State now have a significant hole in their extremist rolodexes -- unless Anjem Choudary is allowed to do interviews from prison.

Choudary, a UK-based ISIS supporter and well-known guest on American news programs, was sentenced on Tuesday to 5.5 years in prison for actively supporting ISIS. Choudary has been named an inspiration to around 100 UK residents who supported or practiced extremism.

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Americans may know him better as the guy who gets into shouting matches with cable news anchors.


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In the cable news ecosystem, Choudary has played the role of fanatical ideologue, the extremist who at times sits in almost diametric opposition to the host of whatever show onto which he's been invited.

Fox News's Sean Hannity is especially good at playing the stark, freedom-loving opposition to Choudary, and the two were known to get into performative shouting matches. Hannity would ask Choudary a few questions about the newsworthy event that had just occurred, and then he'd veer into questions about Islam in general, as though Choudary were the religion's designated representative.

In the above clip from August 2014, Choudary and Hannity both accuse the other of dishonesty, try to "educate" one another, and tell each other to "shut up."

Hannity has put Choudary on his show multiple times. Once, Choudary was a guest alongside Pamella Geller, who was introduced as a "Texas free speech event organizer."

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Geller, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center refers to as "the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead," proceeded to join in the shouting match.

This sort of media jousting also made it to CNN. In one Reliable Sourcessegment, host Brian Stelter begins by saying he wanted to talk about "how Islamic radical views are spread."

Stelter, who lightly criticizes Hannity's shouting match with Choudary, never asks that question. Instead, he begins by asking Choudary how he reacted to the ISIS execution of American journalist James Foley, then asks Choudary to condemn the execution, though such a condemnation was likely never going to take place. At times, the tone of Stelter and Choudary's back-and-forth edges toward Hannity's.

ABC, too, has had Choudary on. The network invited Choudary onto a town hall in 2010, ostensibly debating Islam's place in the United States as panelists (Choudary spoke via off-site camera) debated in front of a banner that read "HOLY WAR," subtitled by, "Should Americans fear Islam?"

During Choudary's brief time, host Christiane Amanpour posed that question to him, at which point Choudary offers a meandering answer.

Now, Choudary's voice will be greatly diminished.

“I regard each of you as dangerous," the sentencing judge told Choudary and his acolyte, Mohammed Rahman, who was also sentenced to time behind bars. "You show no remorse at all for anything you have said or done and I have no doubt you will continue to communicate your message whenever you can.”

Miqdaad Versi, the assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, seemed relieved Choudary would no longer be allowed to discolor views of Muslims across the globe.

Two weeks ago, responding to the news of Choudary's conviction, he said, "Many Muslims have long been puzzled why this man was regularly approached by the media to give outrageous statements that inflamed Islamophobia."

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