Shooting target resembling Muslim figure pulled from Royal Oak's Target Sports

This shooting target which resembles a Muslim figure has been removed from a local store amid concerns it could incite violence.



"I decided to pay the shop a visit and I saw the target on a wall and purchased two copies," said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of Michigan.


"I expressed my concerns that it's not just offensive but a person who shoots at a target like that might see a Muslim and look at that person as a hostile enemy," Walid said. "He promised to stop selling them. It was that simple."




"What he did is great, great news," Akeel said. "That's an expression of social responsibility. It's the prudent thing to do. He recognized those targets perpetuate hate and could create a divide. While we are having this national gun debate why put more gasoline on the fire by selling something that makes a group a target for shooting."

The target is distributed by an Ohio-based company called Thompson Target, which also carries products called "Redneck Zombie" and "Wall Street Zombie." Walid said he called that business and asked them to stop making the target depicting Muslims.

"I had a spirited conversation with a family member of the owner," Walid said. "He told me we're at war and we were trying to kill Osama bin Laden. I told him there are people here who may dress that way and they aren't like Osama bin Laden. I hope I can convince them to stop. God knows how many other gun shops carry it,"

The life-size target called "Crazy Bones" appears to have been removed from the Thompson Target website.

"That leads me to believe they know it is controversial," Walid said.


"There was a case with a military training facility in southern Virginia that had a target of a woman wearing a hijab. They removed it," Hooper said.


Hooper is curious to see if Thompson Target takes any action.

"I doubt they will," he said. "We've had people tell us they are glad we let them know about something so they can go and buy it. Just wade into the cesspool of the Internet and you see a lot."

The owner of Target Sports, Royal Oak, couldn't be reached for comment. In addition to stopping sales of the shooting target, he also recently changed a store policy on renting weapons after there were two suicides and one attempted suicide at the Woodward Avenue location in a four-month period.


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