Our legal team, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), has taken on the case of the Oklahoma gun range that was targeted by the UAE-designated terror group, the Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
On February 17, 2016, Raja’ee Fatihah, a board member of CAIR’s Oklahoma chapter, sued Chad (a disabled Iraqi war veteran) and Nicole Neal, the owners of the Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gun Range in Oktaha, Oklahoma. Fatihah is the same person who caused a national controversy back in November 2015 when he demanded a CAIR float in Tulsa’s Veteran’s Day Parade.
The AFLC reported in a press release Friday that,
Fatihah, a self-proclaimed sharia-adherent Muslim, alleges that he was not permitted to use the Neal’s firing range because he was Muslim in violation of state and federal anti-discrimination laws. But the facts will prove otherwise. On October 23, 2015, Fatihah entered the Neal’s facility with an AK-47 over his shoulder, magazine inserted. The firing range is an outdoor range, and it was pouring rain that day—no one in their right mind (at least no one without an agenda) would even consider shooting on a day like this. Consequently, Fatihah was the only one at the range that day (in fact, there was an indoor range available to him in Tulsa if he was truly interested in only shooting).
The AFLC continues: “While no one at the range ever asked Fatihah what his religion was, he became confrontational with the owners over his religion and his adherence to sharia, further raising the owners’ concerns about this man’s motives and intent. In fact, the owners seriously feared for their personal safety.”
I am convinced that Fatihah was trying to provoke a confrontation that he could use for propaganda purposes. It was the same thing in my opinion, as in the Veteran’s Day float controversy. Fatihah reportedly constructed the CAIR float himself, telling an adoring media that he thought the firestorm over the float was “ridiculous” and “more amusing than upsetting. The people who have a problem are the same little group of people every time. I don’t think they represent a majority of people by any means. Whenever this happens, there are always people who come out and show their support, and they always outnumber the detractors. We’re pretty disappointed that this is getting this much attention. There are other issues more important to veterans than a float in a parade.”
A reader point out in an email to me: in Veteran’s Day Parades, “our veterans are not grouped by religion.” Muslim veterans’ “particular branches of service would have floats they could march with if they were actually interested in being in a Veteran’s Day parade.”
Robert Muise of the AFLC commented about the gun range case: “This case is not about religious discrimination; it’s about public safety. We should applaud Chad’s and Nicole’s vigilance. Indeed, such vigilance is the only way we will keep our society safe from violent jihadists. Had others been as vigilant with Army Major Nidal Hasan or the San Bernardino shooters, we may very well have averted those tragedies. Chad and Nicole should be congratulated for resisting political correctness and doing what was right under the circumstances.”
Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter here. Like her on Facebook here.