A Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Riverside, California is getting some viral fame after one of its employees refused service to a man who verbally attacked a Muslim woman while standing in line.
After video of the incident was posted to Twitter, it has been viewed 1.7 million times as of this Tuesday morning.
The video starts with the man turning around and addressing a woman who is wearing a niqab, which is a head covering that covers most of the face except for the eyes. “Is this Halloween or something?” the man asks sarcastically.
When asked why he would say that, the man responds, “Because I want to.”
“Why, what’s wrong with me?” the woman counters. “Do you know I’m a Muslim?”
“Yeah, I do,” the man responds, before adding, “I don’t like your religion and it says to kill me and I don’t want to be killed by you. How’s that?”
At one point during the exchange, the man identifies himself as a Christian. Later in the video, a customer who is off camera tells the man to get out.
“Get out of here, you fucking racist!” the customer yells at the man.
The man is then seen asking a coffee shop employee who the manager is after apparently being denied service.
“Why are you not serving him?” the Muslim woman asks the employee.
“Because he is disrupting a public place and being very racist,” the employee responds.
As the camera pans back to the man, he can be seen exiting the store.
"I'm a Muslim [woman]."
"I know your religion and I don't want to be killed by you."
This took place at a cafe in California yesterday. pic.twitter.com/4WAWKcQDh8
— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) May 12, 2018
In a statement, the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf supported its employee’s actions.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to discrimination of any kind and have the right to refuse service to any person who makes customers or team members feel endangered in any way,” the statement read.
