CRANBERRY TWP — The man who placed a controversial sign outside his restaurant last weekend made no apologies to those offended, but admitted he is meeting with several members from a mosque to smooth things over.

Michael Pollice is a co-owner of Domenico’s Ristorante on Route 19. Last weekend, the sign outside his business read: “Flying remote control airplanes into Muslims at the mall is my thing.”

Several days later, he changed the sign to read: “If this sign offends you, call a dead soldier’s parents to complain.”

Pollice said Wednesday that the sign is nothing more than “two pieces of wood” in front of his business, and the message on it was only meant to make people laugh.

“I don’t know what the (expletive) people are talking about,” he said. “I just put up a stupid sign with four lines and it caused so much craziness. It was just for fun.”

Pollice said he’s put up controversial signs in the past, including one that said “Is it OK to ask gay guys to form a straight line?”

That doesn’t mean he’s bigoted or hateful, Pollice said, but rather that he likes to make people smile or laugh occasionally by posting thought-provoking comments.

He said an overwhelming majority of his customers have expressed their support of his many messages over the years.

“These signs don’t have any deep meaning or hidden messages behind them,” he said. “I wish I had an ulterior motive, but I just like words.”

Pollice said he’s had his fair share of angry calls and comments, but added that several well-known people in the community have voiced their support for the sign, although he declined to elaborate.

Regardless, Pollice said the current controversy won’t prevent him from putting up whatever message he pleases later on.

Cranberry Manager Jerry Andree said Wednesday that Pollice has every right to do so in the future, adding that the township had no authority or power to make him alter or remove the sign.

“People are upset with it, but we just tell them that (Pollice) has every lawful right to express his opinion and that we have no ability to regulate it,” Andree said. “Certainly that’s not the overall feeling most of us have here in the community.

“But he has every right to express his opinion, and residents have every right to express theirs.”

For his part, Pollice said the controversy has had no impact whatsoever on his business.

But at least one resident said she refuses to eat at Domenico’s anymore because of the matter.

Connie Stobert and her husband were riding down Route 19 on a motorcycle when they passed the restaurant. That’s when Stobert made her husband turn around and go past the sign again, thinking she had misread it.

“It was a bigoted comment, and I don’t have any tolerance for it,” she said. “If that’s his personal opinion, that’s fine. But I don’t feel for a business it should be a welcome sign to come in. It went entirely over the line.”

Despite some of these hard feelings, Pollice said several members from a mosque asked to come down to the restaurant to talk about the matter. As of Thursday, that meeting hadn’t taken place.