"Custom menu items" do not support the "?" query string character along with " target="new

I am unable to create a "custom menu item" that contains a URL with the "question mark" , meaning the query string character, and forcing a new browser page with the " target="new modifier. For some odd reason, the question mark causes this form of custom menu item to not work.

Here's an example of what does work:
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Ricks Homepage|http://www.rjerz.com" target="new

Here is an example of what does not work:
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Ricks Moodle Videos|http://www.rjerz.com/v/rjPlayer/rjPlayer.html?crs=moodle2" target="new

This gets translated by the browser as
http://www.rjerz.com/v/rjPlayer/rjPlayer.html?crs=moodle2%22%20target%3D%22new

It appears that the query character messes up the parser, substituting "%'s" instead of interpreting these.

(see discussions on moodle.org: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=277059#p1190910)