'Muslim-free' Arkansas shooting range turns away brown-skinned father-son duo

A father and son say they were turned away from a “Muslim-free” Arkansas shooting range because they are brown-skinned.

The duo, who are not Muslim but are South Asian, said they were questioned about their religion and background while filling out paperwork at the Gun Cave in Hot Springs, reported the Arkansas Times.

The men told a woman at the counter they were from Hot Springs, and she informed them the business was “a Muslim-free shooting range,” and if they didn’t like that rule they should leave.

The younger man told the newspaper that they were not Muslim, but his father asked about the ban and they discussed the rule.

“Then, all of a sudden, I don’t know what went wrong, but she stopped us from filling out the paperwork and said, ‘I don’t think you guys should be here,’” the younger man said. “She told us to leave or she’d call the cops on us."

The men decided to leave to avoid additional trouble, he said.

"We’re brown -- I don’t know if she assumed we were Muslim," said the younger man, who asked to keep his name out of the newspaper. "When she first asked us, she said, ‘I would hope if you were Muslim you guys wouldn't be cowards and would be up front about it.'"

The man said he was born in the U.S. and lived in Hot Springs for 10 years, and he and his father had gone to the shooting range to enjoy "guy time" before he went off to college elsewhere in the state.

He said the shooting range had changed owners since then, and current owner Jan Morgan claims she has thoroughly studied the Quran and found “109 verses commanding hate, murder and terror against all human beings who refuse to submit or convert to Islam.”

“Since I have no way of discerning which Muslims will or will not kill in the name of their religion and the commands in their (Quran), I choose to err on the side of caution for the safety of my patrons,” Morgan posted on her website.

The newspaper said a call to the gun shop seeking comment was “rewarded with a swift hangup.”