June 2019 Church & State Magazine - June 2019

Oklahoma ‘Muslim-Free’ Gun Range Lawsuit  Dropped

  Rob Boston

A federal lawsuit that had been filed against an Oklahoma gun range whose owner said he would not serve Muslims has been dropped.

The owners of Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gun Range in Oktaha posted a sign three years ago proclaiming it a “Muslim-free” establishment. In March, range owner Nicole Neal removed the sign and replaced it with one barring “terrorists” from the range. Neal has also agreed to allow Muslims to shoot at the range in the future.

The Fatihah v. Neal lawsuit against the range was sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma and the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Oklahoma branch, reported Religion News Service. The plaintiff was Raja’ee Fatihah of Tulsa, who serves as an Army reservist.

“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, in a media statement. “No customer should be excluded from a business based solely on their faith.”

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