State officials revoked car license plates Monday that read "FMUSLMS," capping off a weekend of protests from St. Cloud residents dismayed by what they saw as a divisive message directed at the region's Islamic population.
"I am appalled that this license plate was issued by the State of Minnesota," Gov. Mark Dayton said in a statement. "It is offensive, and the person who requested it should be ashamed. That prejudice has no place in Minnesota."
Social media buzzed over the weekend with reports of sightings of the license plate in St. Cloud, another in a series of incidents that have left some Muslims feeling unwelcome in the central Minnesota city with a burgeoning Somali population.
Some young St. Cloud Somali-Americans sent cellphone photos of the plate to Haji Yusuf, a community activist for #UniteCloud, a group trying to ease racial tension in the city. Yusuf posted the photo to social media, after which residents began demanding that the Department of Public Safety revoke the license plate, said Natalie Ringsmuth, founder and executive director of #UniteCloud.
The campaign was swift and successful. On Monday, the Department of Public Safety — which oversees the state's car registration and licensing — apologized for issuing the plates, revoked them and said they were in the process of gaining possession of them.
Dayton also asked the Department of Public Safety to review its policies to prevent other instances of bigotry from showing up on license plates.
The plate was obtained through a registrar's office in Foley in June and was reviewed by the Driver and Vehicle Services Division, part of the process for personalized plates.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Ibrahim Hooper said this is not the first time bigoted license plates have shown up around the country. He called the incidents a "symptom of the unfortunate mainstreaming of Islamophobia in our society."
