A hamburger restaurant in Illinois is defending a sticker that has angered an online mob to decry the owner as a "racist" for the message he says is simply pro-Marine.

The sticker at the Gross Burgers restaurant points to writing in Arabic and says, "If you can't read this, thank a Marine."

Some took it to foment racial animus against Muslims and others.

"F*** Grossburgers. Absolutely disgusting," read one comment on Facebook.

"If you can read it, thank yourself for being a multicultural human and not a xenophobic garbage human," read another irate commenter.

Brad Gross, the owner of the restaurant, responded to the accusations by noting that many in the community supported his message.

"The bumper sticker has been in my restaurant for more than a decade from a Marine that served in Iraq," he explained to WCIA.

"He brought it in and asked me to put it up, and I said sure go ahead and put it up and it's been there for all these years," he added.

According to one customer angry about the sticker, the manager told them they would "certainly not" be taking the sticker down.

Here's a local news report about the controversy: