State Revokes Anti-Muslim License Plate “FMUSLMS”
How, exactly, a license plate reading “FMUSLMS” made it through the Department of Public Safety’s screening process and onto the road is a question many Minnesota residents are asking. But it did.
At the request of Gov. Mark Dayton—who said he was “appalled” by the state’s error and that the person who requested the custom plate should be “ashamed”—has ordered it be revoked. The plate was approved back in June 2015, in the small town of Foley.
A photo of the plate was posted online after it was spotted in the town of St. Cloud. “Unitecloud,” an organization that attempts to relieve cultural tensions in the city, asked its Facebook followers to notify and express their outrage to the DPS.
“People were angry, asking questions,” Haju Yusef, the man who first posted the image online, said to CBS Minnesota. “How did this happen? How did this go through the DMV without anybody paying attention to it?”
The DPS has not issued details on how its mistake occurred, merely apologizing and concurring that the request should never have been approved in the first place. The plate will be removed immediately. The name of the person who requested it is not being released.
“That prejudice has no place in Minnesota,” said Gov. Dayton, who called for the DPS to review its procedures to ensure the same thing doesn’t happen again. Yusef believes the person who ordered the plate does not represent the majority of Minnesota: “What matters,” he says, “is a community came together at this moment.”
