A grocery store in the American state is under fire for posting a controversial sign in Los Angeles which included, one that reads “Obama and other Muslims are not welcome here” — on its storefront.
The grocery store is located in the tiny town of Mayhill, which is about 265 kilometres southeast from Albuquerque, and had reportedly been posting such controversial signs for years, but drew attention after a traveler stumbled on one of the latest postings by store and alerted a television station.
According to a former employee of the store, who was interviewed by local Television broadcaster KOB, the store owner threw out people who were offended by those signs.
“It is been here a long time,” Marlon McWilliams told the station. “If you go inside the store and you offend him, you cannot go in there no more.
“He turns lots of people away from the store.”
McWilliams said that the store owner always targeted President Barack Obama and other famous public figures and sold these signs to customers.
One of the signs said that “Kill Obama” in large letter fonts with the word “care” in small font below it.
The contentious postings of signs have met with a firestorm on social media platforms with many people calling for a boycott of the store. Others, however, are defending the store owner’s right to freedom speech.
The owner of the store, which is now up for sale, could not be reached for comment nor could the retailer handling the sale.
Staff of the store who were at a hotel and cafe located just next to the store declined to comment when they were reached by journalists.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group, meanwhile issued a statement which stated the store owner to strongly remove the signs.
“While everyone has the first amendment right to freedom of speech, even if it is an offensive speech — we strongly recommend the store’s owner to remove the sign in the interest of common decency and of our nation’s unity at a time of increasing divisions,” said spokesman The Council on American-Islamic Relations Ibrahim Hooper.
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