Taco Bell employee fired after video of Islamophobic rant goes viral
A Taco Bell employee in Missouri was fired from her job after she was captured on video delivering an Islamophobic rant toward a Muslim drive-thru customer.
Tarek Hamdan stopped by the fast-food restaurant early Thursday morning in Bridgeton, Mo., for what he thought would be a quick trip to get food after a Ramadan fast. According to a video that he posted on Facebook, however, it turned into a 25-minute ordeal where the employee serving him started spouting anti-Muslim sentiments and even insisted that all Muslims are terrorists.
“Muslim motherf***ers can suck my d***,” the unnamed employee is heard saying in the video. “‘Cause they tore down my country, they killed thousands of my people.”
Hamdan attempted to defend himself and tell the employee that he hated terrorists as well. He patiently tried to explain that few people have given Muslims a bad reputation. The employee couldn’t be convinced.
An additional video posted by Hamdan shows that he never actually received his food. Instead, the employee claimed that his card didn’t go through, even though he never gave it to her. In the end, both the employee who went on the rant and one of the cooks at the Taco Bell closed the windows on Hamdan and he ended up driving away.
People in Hamdan’s comments section urged him to call representatives of Taco Bell corporate and even suggested that the employee seemed drunk in the video. In the days since the incident took place, Taco Bell confirmed that the employee was fired.
Taco Bell didn’t immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment. However, corporate issued the following statement to St. Louis, Missouri news station KTVI:
“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.”
Hamdan also didn’t respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment, but told the local outlet that he would speak about the ordeal in time.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
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