Islamophobic Texas Gun Instructor: All Muslims Have ‘Sworn The Annihilation Of The United States’

In an interview with the New York Times, a state-certified gun instructor in Texas doubled down on Islamophobic comments he made in a radio ad to attract new customers. As ThinkProgress reported, Crockett Keller of Mason, Texas, said in the ad that he refused to teach Muslims, telling local news outlets and advocacy groups, “I would give up my license to teach before I will teach them,” because he considered all Muslims “enemies.”

Keller, who, as the Times reporter approached him, put his hand on his holstered sidearm because, he said, of death threats, told the newspaper:

Why would I teach people who have sworn the annihilation of the United States and who can lie, cheat, steal and murder Americans in order to further Islam? Why would I arm someone like that? Why would I enable them to carry a weapon legally? I don’t want to be a part of that. [...]

I don’t care what your religion, what your creed is. That makes no bearing. Butwhen people consider themselves a particular religion that has proven itself to be anti-American, well, then, I’m anti-them.

The Texas Public Safety Board, which regulates gun instructors, launched an investigation and said in a statement that an instructor who “denied service to individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion would place that instructor’s certification by the department at risk ofsuspension or revocation.”

Throughout all his interviews with the media, Keller has made no distinction between the tiny minority of radical, militant Muslims and the faith at large. Of more than a billion Muslims worldwide, up to about seven million live in the United States. “[I]f you are a devout Muslim, how can you pledge allegiance to the United States of America? You can’t,” Keller said. “The ideologies are diametrically opposed.”