Posted on 07/03/2009 6:39:20 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
You may be used to seeing fireworks with names like 'Seaside Garden,' 'Burst and Bloom,' or 'Red, White, and Boom.'
But the product names of fireworks at one Wisconsin fireworks stand are nowhere near as benign. Some say they're more than inappropriate--they're racist.
Some of the novelties sold at Fireworks City in Baldwin, Wis. are sparking controversy in the Arab and Muslim communities.
On one side of the packaging for 'Run Hadji Run' fireworks, men of Middle Eastern decent are riding on camels with a bomber plane flying above them. On the other side is an angry-looking Uncle Same yanking the beard of what looks like a Muslim man.
"This is just outrageous," said Kenya McKnight. What comes in my mind, is that people will get idea to pop fireworks at Muslims."
The fireworks were being sold for $30. While the owner didn't want to comment on camera, customers had a lot to say.
"To me it sends a clear message that Muslims are terrorists. ‘Run Hadji Run’—I’m going to throw some fireworks and I want to see you run," McKnight said.
The Council of American-Islamic Relations of Minnesota issued issued a statement about the fireworks, explaining "Hadji is an honorific term for those who have completed the pilgrimage to Mecca, but has been often used as a derogatory term by U.S. Soldiers during the Iraq War."
After 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS visited the store and brought attention to the offensive fireworks Friday, they were pulled off the shelves.
The manufacturer, Missouri-based Red Rhino Fireworks, says they haven’t sold the product in several years. CAIR-MN also wrote a letter to the company's president, asking for him to offer an apology to the Muslim and Arab community.
The fireworks with the questionable names are illegal in Minnesota.
Ooohhh!!!!!!!Aaaaaah!!!!
We had ni##er chasers when I was a kid.
LOL Run Haji run.
OMG! I’m going to buy a dozen of them!
And how is this “racist”?
Kenya McKnight proves herself to be a dummy.
“What comes to my mind si that people will want ot pop fireworks off at muslims.”
Really Kenya? Is that REALLY your first thought? Thank you, in a moment of candid honesty you show yourself to be a moron by your own words.
The crucial difference between “ethnicity” and “race” continues to elude the left. Racial prejudice is wrong because people don’t choose their race, nor do they choose what country they are born in. A joke about radical Muslims isn’t racist because race isn’t involved. Muslims come in a variety of racial and ethnic groups, even within a single given Middle-Eastern country. And people within these countries aren’t all Muslim either.
I think a lot of this “racism” talk is just a means to shutting down debate and making ad hominem attacks. If he sold fireworks lampooning Canadians, Irish, English, French, or German people, or for that matter Scientologists, Christians, or Atheists, nobody would be crying “racism.”
If anything, it shows how small and ignorant your view of the world is, and how broad your preconceptions of Muslims, the Middle East, Arabs, Persians, Kurds, etc., if you lump them all together as one “race,” from Indonesia to Eastern Europe.
I wonder if they will apologize because they couldn’t make the fireworks say “Allah Akbar” and run into a crowd (preferably full of Jews) before detonating...
I want me some of that.
Do they still sell what are /were called “n - - - - r chasers” anywhere? I haven’t bought fireworks in years. It’s been so long I forgot what they look like, I just remember the name we called them back when I was a kid.
I'll take a dozen! WooHoo!
A man goes into an adult entertainment shop and asks
the assistant for an inflatable doll.
“Would you like male or female?”
“Female, please.”
“Would you like Black or White?”
“White, please.”
“Would you like Christian or Muslim?”
This question confused the man, so he asked,
“What has the religion got to do with it? It’s an
inflatable doll!”
“Well,” explained the assistant, “The Muslim one blows
itself up!”
Did you read the letter? I live in the area so because they pulled them off the shelves I will not buy from them I called them and told them so too.
http://kstp.com/kstpImages/letter_to_company[1].pdf
“people will want to pop fireworks off at muslims.”
What’s wrong with that? They’re not the only ones I want to
“pop” off at, but they’re certainly some of them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.