Muslim Free Businesses?

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Yup, racist and rude.

This is a weapons store.

If any weapon that they sold were used in the commission of a terrorist crime, the shop owners would have guilt for

the rest of their lives....'Was there something about them I should have seen or sensed?', even though if there was

anything obvious, there would have been no sale.

In addition, their livelihood would be lost, due to the publicity......this happened in my town, a kind older Muslim

gentleman made a habit for years of giving jobs to young Muslim men who were new to his mosque and new to

America.

His 24 hour convenience store is near where I work, and I pass it nightly on my way to work.

Imagine my surprise when that store was constantly on the news, as two of the suicide crew of the 9/11 attacks had

worked there.

The kind old Muslim man's life was torn apart during the investigation, every Muslim who had worked there for him

was questioned and investigated, he either lost the business, or sold it; the store is there, but he is not.

Point being, even an innocent connection with Islamic terrorists, unaware, can ruin a person's life; selling guns

to them could land someone in jail.

For that reason, I can understand the shop owners' decision not to put themselves in a position of knowingly selling
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weapons to any Muslims.

My point here is that people living in remote communities outside urban centers (whether the US or Australia) develop insular values that revolve around people born in their town as trustworthy and people from "out of town" as outsiders. In the case of not selling weapons to muslims it's clearly a over reaction as if American was in a state of war. The thinking is straight from the 1940s when America (and Australia) interned Japanese civilians as POWs to prevent them from forming a fifth column. The reason I brought up Timothy McVeigh is his thinking reflected the views of many gun owning people living in remote areas that the country was in a state of war. It's quite naive to think not selling weapons to muslims will mean they dont have access. Here in Australia for instance there's plenty of weapons floating around on the black market and everybody knows you can buy any type of weapon if you have the money.

I somehow doubt that's the reason why the store owner declared his shop Muslim free. Rather, it has more to do with the owner's own personal bigotry. Now, just imagine if this same owner declared his store to be "black free." Oh, one might argue that he was only concerned about his guns ending up in the hands of gang bangers, but I seriously doubt anyone would see that as a legitimate argument. In either case, you can't assign guilt to a whole religious or ethnic group for the actions of individual members. And I think it can be easily surmised that people like this store owner associate Islam with brown skinned people. How many whites belonging to the Muslim faith do you suppose would be turned away from his store?

I didn't know Australia had also detained citizens of Japanese ancestry in internment camps, as the U.S. had done.

Why I think they put signs like that is not so much about racism although they don't trust Muslims because of terrorist attacks committed by Muslims in America, it's about these business owners firmly believing the only reason a Muslim would even venture into their shop is to buy something to use in a terrorist act of some kind. These people believe a Muslim wouldn't have any other reason to walk through the doors of their business except for that so they are saying, don't bother coming in here because we know what you are up to. It's because they see, in the media, stories concerning Muslims shooting or bombing and the ones who don't do that, which there are plenty of, wouldn't have a need to walk through the doors to begin with, since most of them that are in this country aren't really into that kind of thing. That's not saying others overseas aren't.

So it does sound racist, true, but it's based in this idea the Muslim is only going to want to buy to use in an attack against Americans. It's got nothing to do with hating someone just because they are different because there are all kinds of differences in OK. You can find any ethnic group here. Small towns are full of whites, blacks, Indians, Mexicans, Asians, or mixtures thereof. It really is a melting pot and modern Okies aren't normally racist just to be racist. The idea is, if you are good hearted, you are good hearted regardless of what you look like.
If Muslims never engaged in terrorism no one would think twice about them.

I don't think it's necessarily racism but more to do with tolerating differences. I think you are exaggerating the diversity of rural towns, they are much more homogeneous that you are willing to admit. It's interesting to read about Tulsa which has a predominantly democratic support base but are very conservative baptists with (contradictory) strong views on abortion and other issues such as immigration that should make them more in line with republicans. I think this stems partly from ignorance and partly getting led around like sheep by a few town leaders.

Yes, google it, we enthusiastically locked up Japanese-Australians during the war.

Oklahoma really is different and it's not uncommon to find small, rural towns that are predominantly black. It's due to OK's unique history as an Indian Territory. After the civil war, freed blacks flocked here in droves and they had a plan to create a black state. Just the fact there were many tribal nations in OK, land the government ceded to Indian tribes during Removal Acts is incredibly unique. Check out this link featuring a list of all the Indian tribes in OK. This alone creates the most diverse state in the US!

http://www.theamericanindiancenter.org/oklahoma-tribes

So you see, it isn't like the rest of rural America where you will see plenty of all white small towns. Yes, they do exist but trust me when I tell you, OK is not like the rest of rural America. You are trying to apply the norm for other states, with typical histories, to that of Oklahoma but no other state in this country has a history remotely close to this one's. It was supposed to be nothing but indians and some of the tribes had their own black slaves they brought from other locations in the US during removal, and then the whites pressured the government after the civil war, which penalized the tribes of Indian Territory for siding with the Confederacy, creating the dual territories, Oklahoma and Indian when it was just Indian Territory before. The government then made plans to move more indians to the Oklahoma half of the state. Some of the land remained unassigned to tribes and caucasians from other states wanted their share of the territory and demanded the unassigned land be opened to them and that's why we still celebrate the Land Rush on April 22 every year. At school we dressed like pioneers, brought little covered wagons to school, picnic lunches and staked out land across the playground in the afternoon and then had a picnic lunch. We did this every year during elementary school.
So it's definitely not a homogenized by any stretch of the imagination and most people have at least one Native American ancestor while the nations and tribes have plenty of members still. You see signs on the interstate when you enter different nations. This is something you do not see in other states. So, with all this diversity even the most backwoods Okie isn't cut off from others unlike themselves. In addition to Native Americans, African Americans and Caucasians, the Hispanic population has soared as well as those immigrating from Asia. Oklahoma City has an official Asian District and a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. with neighborhoods mostly Hispanic or Asian near downtown.

We live in an era of political correctness
This will probably go like the Christian bakers, fined 100 thousand something, gag order issued, forced to under go Muslim Sensitivity Training at the PC indoctoration school "Muslims only" sign would be perfectly fine with the judges though.

Refusing to cater to gays or Muslims in a business open to the public is indefensible and wrong, either way. Political correctness has nothing to do with it.

Hey, those groups have the same color of money as the rest of us! I may not agree with their lifestyle or their religious affiliation, but their money is still green. The only way I would exclude them is if the caused any criminal or violence toward me or my business, and even then, on an individual basis.

Absolutely.

Of course the overwhelming majority of businessmen feel exactly the same way. Turning away paying customers rarely succeeds as a business model.

There's a local hobby shop I've been patronizing for 25 years or more. Sometimes it's the owner himself working behind the counter and we make the usual small talk about kids, local current events, and so on. It occurs to me that after all this time I have no clue as to his political or philosophical views. For all I know he's a Nazi, or a Communist, or belongs to some bizarro religion – probably not, but in any case he's realized that advertising his stance on politics or religion or the like is far more likely to drive customers away than it is to attract them.

The only businesses I've seen which proudly put up political signs were bars or gun shops.

Even if all the relevant laws were struck down tomorrow, there is exactly zero danger that gays or Muslims or any other minority would suddenly be unable to find any business willing to sell them a cake or rent them a hotel room. It's not about protecting minorities from anything. It's about control.

That was hardly the case with black Americans, who in many places were not welcomed to shop or stay over in many businesses. Enforcing civil rights isn't about control, it's about making sure that every citizen gets the same quality treatment.

It isn't 1950. Do you have trouble remembering that?