Under pressure from Muslim groups, Chris Matthews (he of the not-so-huge kisser) has backed out of a talk he was supposed to give to a conference of Indian-American hoteliers, according to the New York Sun today.

Matthews came under fire for agreeing to speak because he would share billing with an Indian official, the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, who has been accused of tolerating anti-Muslim violence.

An MSNBC spokesman told the Sun yesterday that "due to a scheduling conflict" Matthews has canceled his March 24 speech to the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He wouldn't elaborate on the scheduling conflict.

Sepia Mutiny has more, including the bizarre note about how the cancellation was first announced over an "unauthorized" email to the Pentagon's press list. A follow-up email--which we received because for some reason we're on the Pentagon's press list--explained, "A processing error resulted in the unintentional distribution of that message" and that the Pentagon "has taken steps to guard against a recurrence, and sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience."

Boy we can't wait to read the conspiracy theorists when they get hold of this one.