An Alabama restaurant owner posted an impassioned notice on her Facebook page that she was closing her business Saturday to protest a nearby appearance by “asshat” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade.
Kilmeade, a co-host of “Fox & Friends” who recently compared border detention facilities to overcrowded house parties, was presenting his live show “America: Great from the Start” at the Lyric Theatre in Birmingham.
Adeeba Khan, owner of the Shu Shop restaurant near the downtown theater, announced in her post that she was closing up for the day in protest because the event is “anti-immigrant, hostile towards brown people, pro-wall, and that goes against what we believe in at Shu Shop.”
As a “decent human, first and foremost, a person of color, a woman, a second generation immigrant of Pakistani decent, and a Birmingham native, I refuse to contribute to anyone’s hateful bullshit,” she added.
“I love my city. This is my city. This is OUR city,” Khan said, adding that Kilmeade’s show “flies in the face of everything that MY BIRMINGHAM is about- love, acceptance, knowledge, and RESPECT.”
“I will not be ok with hosting this asshat in my town. In our town,” she wrote, concluding, “Stand strong, my friends. I love y’all dearly.”
Kilmeade could not immediately be reached for comment.
A spokesman for the Lyric Theatre told AL.com that the venue has hosted a variety of events representing different perspectives. It’s also a rental facility and the “views, thoughts and opinions ... on stage ... do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of Directors, the Junior Board, donors, the administrative staff, the technical staff, theatre volunteers or even the promoter,” said a statement from Lyric board chairman Tom Carruthers.
