The chairman of the Big Stone County Republican Party, who took to Facebook last week to issue a "call to arms" against Muslims, has lost his day job.

Whether he loses his leadership position in the party as well will be up to his fellow Big Stone Republicans.

Jack Whitley posted a series of inflammatory posts on Facebook last week, calling Muslims "terrorists" and "parasites" and calling for someone to "frag 'em." The posts sparked a backlash, not just against Whitley but against the community and his employer, Hardware Hank in Ortonville.

Faced with boycott threats and an unrepentant Whitley, hardware store owners Bob and Sue Kulbeik fired Whitley and put up a Facebook post.

"This person has brought shame to us personally, to our business, our community, our county and the Republican Party," the Kulbeiks wrote in a post that received more than 200 "likes" by Monday afternoon. "We will not tolerate this type of bigotry within our business family."

Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Keith Downey and the state party's executive committee also issued statements strongly condemning Whitley's anti-Muslim writings. But the state party structure only allows county chairs to be removed by local party members. So far, the state party had not had word of a leadership change.

The controversy shook Ortonville, a community with fewer than 2,000 residents, where almost everyone knows everyone.

This past weekend should have been a festive one at Hardware Hank. The store was hosting a holiday cookie contest for Ortonville's Fall Into Winter Expo. Instead, the store's owners were dealing with boycott threats.

"We had a lot of people who were friends of ours who were loving and supportive and concerned, and we had others who said, 'We won't darken your doorstep anymore," Sue Kulbeik said in an interview. "It was a tough weekend."

Whitley was let go, she said, not because of any outside pressure, but because "he clearly offered no remorse" for his statements. No one at the store, she said, had ever heard him express his extreme views against Muslims.

Above all, she said, she hopes the rest of the state doesn't think Whitley speaks for all of his neighbors.

"Don't paint all of us out here in West Central Minnesota with such a broad brush. One completely off-the-wall person doesn't have the community support when he speaks like that," Kulbeik said. "That's not how we are, that's not how we feel."

Jennifer Brooks • 612-673-4008