Restaurant Owner Says 'Let My Building Burn' in the Name of 'Justice' for George Floyd

On Friday morning, the Gandhi Mahal, an Indian restaurant in Minneapolis, was damaged during the riots that sprung out of the protests of George Floyd’s death. The owner of the restaurant, Ruhan Islam, watched his restaurant burning on the news.

“Let my building burn,” he said. “Justice needs to be served, put those officers in jail.”

Mahal’s daughter, Hafsa, told the story in a post on Facebook:

Hello everyone!
Thank you to everyone for checking in. Sadly Gandhi Mahal has caught fire and has been damaged. We won’t loose hope though, I am so greatful for our neighbors who did their best to stand guard and protect Gandhi Mahal, Youre efforts won’t go unrecognized. Don’t worry about us, we will rebuild and we will recover.

This is Hafsa, Ruhel’s daughter writing, as I am sitting next to my dad watching the news, I hear him say on the phone; “ let my building burn, Justice needs to be served, put those officers in jail”. Gandhi Mahal May have felt the flames last night, but our firey drive to help protect and stand with our community will never die! Peace be with everyone. #JusticeforGeorgeFloyd #BLM

I suppose it’s easier to virtue signal when you have insurance. KB Balla, who invested his life savings into his sports bar, however, was devastated at the destruction of his dream business. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do, I worked so hard to get here, so hard,” he said.

People like Ruhan Islam should offer their businesses up to the looters and let the businesses owned by people like KB Balla alone. This behavior honors nobody, and won’t bring justice to George Floyd.

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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis