Muslim woman sues Starbucks for writing ‘ISIS’ on her coffee cup
America might have been working badly in mapping out all the protests against discrimination but it still has a long way to go in sweeping away hatred from its land completely and the latest case of Islamophobia by Starbucks barista in St. Paul, Minnesota in the United States is proving the same. The incident is of the first day of July, when a Muslim woman, Aishah was left “overwhelmed” after Starbucks serves her a cup of coffee with ‘ISIS’ written in the place of her name.
Amid prevailing conditions of COVID-19 pandemic, Aishah was reportedly wearing a face mask as a precaution but that still couldn’t curtail her efforts of mentioning her name while placing her order. Sharing the incident with CNN, Aishah told, “When she asked for my name, I slowly repeated it multiple times. There is absolutely no way she could have heard it as ISIS. Aishah is not an unknown name and I repeated it multiple times.”
‘ISIS’ stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria which is ill-famed for carrying out several terrorist attacks. Feeling humiliated, Aishah said, “The moment I saw it, I was overwhelmed with a lot of emotions. I felt belittled and so humiliated. This is a word that shatters the Muslim reputation all over the world. I cannot believe that in this day and age, something like this can be considered acceptable. It isn’t okay.”
Target, which runs and operates the particular store, marked it off as “a mistake”.
“We have investigated the matter and believe that it was not a deliberate act but an unfortunate mistake that could have been avoided with more clarification. We’re taking appropriate actions with the team member, including additional training, to ensure this does not occur again,” read a statement released by Starbucks.
However, Aishah has allegedly sued the target and filed a charge of discrimination against it to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights on Monday and is being represented by Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN). As per Aishah when she asked for the manager on receiving the order but was dismissed and instead, received a new drink and a USD 25 gift card.
As an irony, Minneapolis has been the hotspot of protests against systematic racism ever since African-American George Floyd was brutally murdered under police custody. The citizens had erupted in a nationwide rage that trickled to the rest of the world to demand justice for the black man.