After receiving death threats and offensive vandalism, the owner of a Galveston restaurant was forced to take extreme measures

FILE - This Sept. 11, 2008 file photo shows downtown Galveston, Texas. William Merrell, a Galveston resident and professor at the local Texas A&M University campus, came up with a simple, if expensive, solution that has caught the attention of policymakers: The Ike Dike, a 17-foot high system of walls and flood gates stretching more than 50 miles along the Southeast Texas coast. But the plan would cost a minimum of $3 billion to $4 billion without the expected problems any government construction project has, such as ballooning costs, delays and bureaucracies. Environmentalists also have expressed concerns about the Ike Dike's effect on the area. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip/FILE)

Following vandalism and a number of death threats, Galveston business owner Asad Khan felt he had no other choice but to close his restaurant ZaZa Bar & Bites.

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In an interview, Khan explained why he feared for his life: “People want me dead because of me being a Muslim.”

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After immigrating from Pakistan in 1993, Khan said he opened ZaZa as a fun project he wanted to love and enjoy.

“Never did I think that people in Galveston are so closed-minded. […] I am honestly sick to my stomach. And frankly, fearful.”

Last year, the Indo Fusion restaurant was vandalized with bacon and bacon grease, which could be considered offensive to Khan, as it is a common practice for Muslims to abstain from pork.

Since then, the entrepreneur restaurateur said the harassment has only gotten worse: “I shut ZaZa down because of death threats towards me via phone calls. In the last seven weeks or so [the] calls became worse. I did not enjoy being called ‘sand n****r’ or people telling me that I will die in ZaZa.”

At this time, no information on the closure has been posted to the ZaZa website or Facebook, however, Khan has spoken with Galveston police.

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