A manager-in-training at a Taco Bell restaurant in Bridgeton, Missouri was filmed making Islamophobic comments by a Muslim man who was pa...
A manager-in-training at a Taco Bell restaurant in Bridgeton, Missouri was filmed making Islamophobic comments by a Muslim man who was patronizing the store.
Tarek Hamdan filmed the encounter with the woman shortly after 1am Central (2am Eastern) in Bridgeton on Tuesday.
The incident began when the employee asked Hamdan why he had ordered $50 worth of food and he answered by explaining that he is Muslim and had not eaten all day because he had been fasting for Ramadan.
In the video the woman states assumptions about Hamdan's faith and then tells him, 'Until you call me and change my mind, Muslim motherf**kers can suck my d**k.'
Management at the store where the incident occurred confirmed the woman had been fired to DailyMail.com and declined to provide additional comment beyond an earlier released statement.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim year, during which strict fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset, which for Hamdan means he can't eat until after the sun goes down.
The dates vary each year, with the month spanning from May 5 though June 4 in 2019.
When Hamdan went to go get his evening meal in the early morning hours of Tuesday, he was confronted with an Islamophobic rant from a member of management.
Hamdan shared the video of the woman making the comments in a tweet moments after the encounter, writing:
'Around 1am after a busy day at work & not being able to eat from a long day of fasting for #Ramadan, I went to @tacobell to buy some food for suhoor (pre-dawn meal/breakfast) but, ended up having a 25 minute debate with this worker who insisted ALL Muslims are terrorists. #STL'
Speaking about Muslims, the woman can be heard saying, 'They tore down my country, they killed thousands of my people, so you need to change my mind.
'You need to cater to me. I’m not going to cater to you, 'cause this is on my territory.'
Hamdan tries to turn being confronted with the hate-filled rhetoric into a teaching moment, telling the woman, 'But I'm an American, just like you.'
The women then asks him if he believes women should 'bow down' to men, to which Hamdan replies, 'Women have equal rights as men, that's what God says in the book.'
Refusing to budge from her preconceived notions about the religion, the woman looks down is disbelief and says, 'That's not Muslim.'
Again, Hamdan tries to educate her about his faith.
'See, Muslim and whatever religion you're thinking Muslim is in your head is not what you believe, it's not the same belief,' Hamdan says. The woman then tries to hurry him out of the drive-thru lane, telling him the timer is running.
'But hit me up on my phone, I'd love to talk to you about this,' the employee says before closing the window.
Hamdan posted a second video on Thursday from the same incident, where the woman gets upset because she 'apologized three times' but Hamdan still wanted to speak to another manager about her behavior.
A spokesperson for the store located at 12420 Street Charles Rock Road said in a statement, 'We welcome everyone in our restaurants and do not tolerate this type of behavior. This is a franchise location and the team member involved no longer works for this franchisee. The franchisee has reached out to the customer to apologize.'
Faizan Syed, who serves as the executive director of the Missouri chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the firing of the woman was not enough over the 'hurtful' and 'reprehensible' video.
'Taco Bell does not appreciate the seriousness of this situation. They have not done enough. Just firing the lady is a cop-out, an easy way to sweep the issue under the rug,' Syed told KMOV4.
Instead, Syed wants the company to offer its workers, including the fired woman, cultural competency training.
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