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The owners of the Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gun Range in Oktaha, Oklahoma, posted a sign on the business declaring the range a "Muslim-free" establishment. Muslim and civil rights activists’ reacted to a "Muslim-free" sign stating that Muslims are an integral part of communities across The United States and that this sign is discriminating and unlawful.
As Religion News Service reports, David Yerushalmi, senior counsel for American Freedom Law Center said “The law does not require a gun shop or gun range owner — owners of an inherently dangerous business — to equip or train the next jihadist. Not only do our clients have a right to refuse to serve someone they believe to be a public safety risk, they have an obligation to their other customers, employees, and the community to do so.”
Nearly three years after civil rights advocates filed a lawsuit against the gun range, alleging violation of federal public accommodations law, the owners decided to remove the sign. After the removal of the "Muslim-free" sign, the civil rights organizations decided to drop the lawsuit that was filed in 2016 on behalf of Raja'ee Fatihah, a Muslim man from Tulsa who was asked to leave the gun range. “We are pleased that the defendants in this case decided to take down their anti-Muslim sign and that they affirmed their commitment to complying with the law,” said Heather Weaver, senior staff attorney for the Project on Freedom of Religion and Belief at the ACLU, according to Religion News Service. “No customer should be excluded from a business based solely on their faith.”
On the other hand, the gun range’s lawyers are claiming the case’s dismissal as a win as well. According to Stripes.com, Robert Muise, an attorney with the American Freedom Law Center (which defended the gun range) stated that the sign is political free speech and that Muslims were never banned from the business. "They've made it clear that it was a political-protest sign," Muise said. According to him, the dismissal of the “fabricated nonsense case” was a “big victory” for the gun range’s management and he also added that the gun range's policy had not changed since the lawsuit was filed and that the sign was not taken down because of it.
Instead of a "Muslim-free" sign, after New Zealand mosque massacre, the owners have put up a sign saying the gun range is a “terrorist-free” zone. The new sign includes a long list of groups it says will be excluded, including members of the Islamic Society of North America and the Council on American Islamic Relations.
