Last Updated on: 22nd September 2016, 02:22 pm
If you’re so determined to make a statement, at least shit out the effort required to find a big enough sign to accommodate it. Christ, what a moron.
A Minnesota business owner who wrote “Muslims get out” on the sign outside his restaurant has defended the move, claiming that people were taking the sign “in the wrong way”.
Protesters of different faiths gathered by the Treats Family Restaurant with banners that read: “Love trumps hate” and attempted to pull down the letters from the board, which also advertised food and ice cream.
Owner Dan Ruedinger in Lonsdale, Minnesota, told Fox News: “I didn’t want to put ‘terrorists’ on the board. So we were going to put ‘Muslim extremists’, but we didn’t have room on the board.”
And it only got worse from there as Ruedinger went on to explain that no really, we’re not racists and that we’re all taking his sign the wrong way because…um, I don’t know, to be honest. Seems to me like there’s only going to be one way to interpret something that means exactly one thing.
“Now, people started taking it the wrong way, thinking we were against Muslims in general, and we’re not.” Quite the opposite. We are not racists,” he said to Fox.
Ok, so why the racist sign? Because stabbings, that’s why.
He told the Lonsdale News-Review that the incident of the Somali-American man who stabbed eight people in a shopping mall in St Cloud, Minnesota, this month had prompted him to put up the sign.
“I’ve had enough and I’m standing up,” he said.
“With all the bombs and shootings we’ve had, we’re supposed to welcome refugees here who want to kill us? This has nothing to do with race, it has to do with a religion of hatred that preaches violence.
“Some Muslims are good people and want a better life. They need to step up, take control and hold the others accountable.”
On behalf of anyone who’s ever been told that at all times and no matter the circumstance that they must be an unpaid and on-duty ambassador for and policeman of whatever community it’s been determined they represent, allow me to say in the politest terms I can muster, fuck off, ice cream man. The good people who are just trying to live and better their lives are too busy doing that as best they can to worry 24/7 about what everyone else is up to. Besides, quietly going about one’s business is often the best way to lead by example. It’s a damn sight better than putting up an ignorant sign outside the neighbourhood sherbet shack, I know that much.
But maybe there’s hope.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations invited him to meet with Muslim community leaders at the Islamic Centre of Faribault.
“Our experience has shown that interaction with ordinary American Muslims and enhanced knowledge of Islam are key factors in the reduction of Islamophobic attitudes,” said Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota CAIR chapter.
That sounds nice. How’d it go?
The meeting was reportedly cut short as Mr Ruedinger became agitated and shouted about his son’s service in Iraq, saying he could not be “silent” any longer.
Mr Hussein told the newspaper: “It was a short conversation. He did not agree. We are here to talk to people; to start a dialogue. We wanted to talk to him about the sign and about issues.”
Sadly, there’s just no getting through to some people. It’s ok to have opposing viewpoints. They’re often what makes life interesting and fun. But when those viewpoints devalue and dehumanize millions of people and you can’t figure out why that might upset them, all that’s left to say is something I’ve already said. Christ, what a moron.
