MISSOURI – A Republican Missouri candidate for governor is raising money for his campaign by selling fake “ISIS hunting permits,” scaring local Muslims who say the stickers perpetuate anti-Islam sentiment.

According to the Associated Press, Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens sent out a fundraising email last Wednesday offering up bumper stickers with the words “ISIS HUNTING PERMIT 2016” and featuring an expiration date that ends when “we defeat this evil.” 

The stickers are being sold for $10 each, although buyers who donate $100 can receive a tag signed by former Navy SEAL Rob O’Neill, who has claimed he killed international terrorist Osama bin Laden.

The stickers have proven wildly successful, and the campaign has stated that they are already sold out. 

Now, the Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR) is speaking out against the candidate’s stunt, expressing fears that while the inflammatory rhetoric is directed at ISIS, it could embolden assaults on ordinary Muslims.

“When [people] get a bumper sticker saying ‘Here’s your permit to attack ISIS,’ and they see a young Muslim lady at Wal-Mart, and they’re like, ‘This is ISIS, I’m going to attack them,’ that’s when the real trouble begins,” Faizen Syed, spokesperson for the Missouri chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said. 

Several Islamic centers and houses of worship have been defaced with graffiti decrying ISIS over the past year, and in November 2015, a 6th-grade Muslim girl in New York was reportedly called “ISIS” by a group of boys, placed in a headlock, and punched while they attempted to forcibly remove her hijab.

Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, insists he is not demonizing the broader Muslim community — just “radical islam.” 

 He insinuated that President Obama is to blame for the lack of clarity, due to his refusal to use the term “Radical Islam.”

“As leaders, we need to be very clear: there is a difference between Islam and radical Islamic terrorism,” Greitens said. “The reason there is confusion out there is that we don’t have strong leaders who are willing to identify this as a warped terrorist ideology.”