Via the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Associated Press reports in Minnesota: County GOP official resigns after anti-Muslim remarks:
The Republican Party county chairman who came under fire for comments about Muslims on his Facebook page has resigned.
Big Stone County GOP Chair Jack Whitley called Muslims "parasites" and wrote "FRAG 'EM!" when they travel to Mecca, slang for a fragmentation hand grenade.
Those comments were condemned by Muslim community leaders and state GOP chairman Keith Downey.
Whitley told the Associated Press Friday that he had no plans to resign but was asked to do so by other board members. His resignation was effective Friday.
Whitley was also recently fired from his hardware store job in Ortonville.
Whitley declined to answer whether he still believes what he wrote about Muslims.
His comments were first reported by the Bluestem Prairie blog.
So far, this news is being greeted warmly on social media by friends across the political spectrum. As we noted in Big Stone County residents speak out against Islamophobic remarks by county GOP chair,and Press release: CAIR-MN welcomes 'outpouring of support' following GOP county chair's comments, Big Stone County people have not been happy to be known as the home to an extremist urging the murder of people because of their religious beliefs.
Bluestem first reported Whitley's remarks in Facebook status, Big Stone Co GOP chair calls Muslims "parasites," writes "frag em" at Mecca.
We had begun reading Whitley's Facebook page after we noticed his interactions on Facebook with Minnesota House District 12A representative-elect Jeff Backer. See our November 8 post MN12A: Jeff Backer tells BPOU chair "to repair" damage from "perverse" laws on top of his list (screenshots of the exchanges below):
We noted an additional exchange in our November 15 post, MN12A: Jeff Backer's backers troll new representative about Emmer COS, priorities.
Images: The Big Stone County National Wildlife Refuge, near Ortonville. It's a beautiful part of Minnesota's western boundary waters and we recommend visits to the Upper Valley of the Minnesota River (above); Jack Whitley' and Jeff Backer interact on Facebook, screenshot (below).
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