An Arlington hot yoga studio triggered a Twitter frenzy Thursday after offering a Sept. 11-themed discount on yoga classes, the Washington Post reports.
Bikram Arlington, located just four miles away from the Pentagon, tweeted Thursday morning: "9 + 11 = 20% OFF! PATRIOT DAY SALE on Bikram Yoga."
The studio deleted the tweet soon after outraged responses began flooding in.
Before deleting the tweet, however, the Bikram Arlington account tried to defend its promotion, tweeting, “The goal was to point out what date it was and associate to patriotism and to remember it. Its a shame some of you go to the negative.”
Minutes later, the company tweeted again, advising users to search the term "911 building 7," referring to a conspiracy theory about the 9/11 attacks. That tweet has been deleted as well.
Owner Zahra Vaezi, 33, told the Washington Post, "I didn’t realize people would be so 'roar,' you know?"
“It’s like that man who punched his wife,” she said, referring to ex-Ravens player Ray Rice, who appears to punch his then-fiancee in a video released earlier this week. "I mean, that’s upsetting. But I think it kind of gets blown out of proportion."
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Vaezi’s husband, Frank, who wrote the promotional tweet, has taken to Twitter to apologize for the tweets, several times.
"I wrote that stupid post at 1am with yoga brain. I’m sure some of you know what I mean. Z fought against it don’t blame her!!" read one tweet.
"Please accept our sincerest apologies, we did not mean to cause any harm to anyone," read another.
The intention of the sale was to honor the memory of the many members of our family, community and our nation that we lost. — Bikram Arlington (@bikramarlington) September 11, 2014
Vaezi also told the Post that the promotion is still valid.
The studio's voice mailbox was full, and NBC Washington was unable to leave a request for a comment.
The criticism of Bikram Arlington comes after similar outrage last year over a 9/11-related promotion by a Wisconsin golf course.
The owner of Tumbledown Trails Golf Course was bombarded with a backlash and even death threats after he advertised nine holes of golf for $9.11 to mark the anniversary of the attacks.
