Treats Family Restaurant in Lonsdale, Minnesota, is an ordinary roadside eatery that – as advertised – is intended as a place to take the family out for Americana and ice cream. “It’s my right and I’m going to stand up, and I wish more people would do it”. We are not targeting the Muslims in general, just the extremists.
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Restaurant owner Dan Ruedinger said the sign has led to some backlash, but he says business is up so much that he had to call in three extra workers Monday.
According to FOX 9 News, the sign, which was erected following the ISIS-affiliated stabbing attack in nearby St. Cloud, attracted a gaggle of protesters outside Treats Family Restaurant on Monday. He said he was “support (ing) this guy who has his First Amendment right to freedom of speech like we all do”.
Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations in Minnesota (CAIR-MN), plans to invite Ruedinger to a mosque in Faribault on Tuesday.
“I get it, it’s his right to say what he wants to say”, Payten Estepp, who was protesting the sign, told WCCO-TV.
Lonsdale Police Chief Jason Schmitz said the owner told her to stop and a small “altercation” occurred, the News Review reported. “Some Muslims are good people and want a better life”, he said. They need to step up, take control and hold the others accountable.
Joe Reyes posted a photo of the sign to the Lonsdale Happenings Facebook group midday Monday, and it quickly gained a flurry of comments and shares. Ruedinger’s sign went up a few days after a man stabbed and injured eight people at a St. Cloud mall on 17 September 2016, before he was shot and killed by police.
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Ruedinger admitted that following the weekend terrorist attacks in St. Cloud, Minnesota, New York City and New Jersey, he couldn’t take it anymore and chose to voice his opinion.
