Fraters Libertas

Mannequin II: Explosive Bugaboo

From this morning's Strib:

For nearly two years, a mannequin, amateurishly dressed to look like a suicide bomber, stood virtually unnoticed in the corner of a Rochester used-car dealer's office.

Suddenly, the mannequin -- displaying a profane message and wearing what has been interpreted as ethnic garb -- figuratively came to life, enraging members of the Islamic community in southeastern Minnesota and Washington, D.C.

To paraphrase Mr. Burns: "Eww, no! The muslims are mad at me! No, not the muslims!"

The mannequin is "clearly offensive and insulting," Rabiah Ahmed, communications coordinator for the Council on American/Islamic Relations (CAIR), America's leading Islamic civil rights advocacy group, said Monday from Washington.

"These actions do nothing to promote anything positive between cultures and community," said Ahmed, whose group heard complaints from Rochester's Islamic community, which is large enough to have its own mosque in the city of 86,000 people.

Yeah, that's the standard by which ANY AND EVERY SINGLE PRIVATE BEHAVIOR SHOULD BE JUDGED! Let's see, I was going to have a bowl of oatmeal this morning, but I have to ask myself does it do anything to promote anything positive between cultures and community?

(If this were 80 miles north in the Twin Cities, at this point in the article--oh hell what am I talking about no one would have the cahones to put up such a display in such a PC environ.)

But car dealer Steve Lewis, 48, claims that "there's nothing discriminatory" about the bearded mannequin. He said that until this month, there had never been a complaint in the nearly two years the mannequin has worn a neck-covering cloth that extends from the back of a red baseball cap and partially covers the back of a white lab technician's jacket.

A belt made of rope and wire holds three empty toilet-paper rolls, made to look like explosives. The mannequin is holding a gas-tank hose.

Apparently, two sniveling students went in to videotape this outrage (on private property in a LOCKED business where people have to presumbably be buzzed in) and got into it with the Mr. Lewis. The pansies then sent the tapes to their brethren in DC and local media outlets to try to portray the dude as some kind of racistbigothater.

Thankfully, he is sticking to his guns:

"Israel is the only country in the Middle East that stands for democracy, and Israel still gets the short end of the stick," he said. "I'm not about to support a suicide bomber and supporters of terrorism."

He said he considered changing the mannequin before St. Patrick's Day, then changed his mind after the initial meeting with Kailani and his friends.

"If somebody comes in to buy a car, I don't ask what religion they are," Lewis said. "What's the big stink about?"

So this morning, we at Fraters would like to raise a big Bloody Mary to used car dealer Steve Lewis of Rochester, MN for sacking up and not being intimidated by a couple of whiny students and their powerful allies in Washington.