Alabama store owner posts sign saying 'BBQ PORK RESTURANT IS SAFEST NO MUSLIMS INSIDE'
BY NINA MANDELL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, December 10th 2010, 2:22 PM
The fuss over a sign in Alabama at an electronics store reading "BBQ PORK RESTURANT (sic) IS SAFEST NO MUSLIMS INSIDE" shocked its longtime owner who said he doesn't understand why it's such a big deal.
Electronic Repair Company owner Chuck Biddinger, who put up the sign last week, said he meant the message as a joke. After all, he said, it wasn't even the most offensive one he had ever posted.
That award goes to a sign he posted last May that read "A dog is wiser than a woman - it does not bark at its master," earned heat from domestic violence groups in Alabama.
"The women's groups went ballistic," he told the Daily News when he picked up the phone at his East Lake, Ala., shop.
Biddinger said to pacify them he put a public service announcement urging victims of domestic violence to call a hotline.
But he said this sign, which has garnered national attention, has gotten more positive reaction than negative - and he has no plans to apologize to anyone offended.
"I have gotten a few complaints about it, but for every one complaint about it I've had, 10 people tell me that they like it and support it," he said.
He told local television station ABC 33/40 that while it was meant as a lighthearted joke, it was true.
"Muslims do not eat pork," he told the television station. "It's a known fact that Muslims have tried to commit crimes in this country."
On Friday, Biddinger said he planned to take the sign down sometime soon, but hadn't quite had the time to do it - and was still looking for something equally eye-catching. Signs outside his shop are changed every week, usually with jokes he receives via email chains.
Many of them are not politically correct. But the coverage of this one, he said, has been unbelievable.
"I never thought about that until it got picked up on the Internet and it went totally viral when I put this sign up," he said.
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