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Muslim woman claims barista at a Starbucks in Target wrote 'ISIS' on her coffee cup

“I felt humiliated. I felt enraged."
CAIR-Minnesota
/ Source: TODAY

A Muslim woman who visited a Starbucks locations inside a Target in Minnesota is claiming that she was the victim of racial discrimination after a barista allegedly wrote "ISIS" on her drink order.

Aishah, a 19-year-old college student whose last name has been withheld for security reasons, said she ordered a drink at the St. Paul Starbucks location on July 1. Immediately upon receiving her order, she looked down at the cup and, instead of her name (or something close to it), she said she saw the name of the militant Islamic group scribbled on the plastic cup.

Aishah then decided to confront the barista.

“I asked her why she wrote this on my cup and I proceeded to ask for a manager," the college student told TODAY Food. "The manager looked at the cup and looked at me and said, ‘What is the issue? People get their name spelled wrong all the time.’”

Aishah then said she spoke with another store manager who agreed to talk to both the barista and the manager. Aishah said she was then given a new drink and a $25 Starbucks gift card before being escorting out of the cafe.

Aishah, who was wearing a hijab at the time, said she repeated her name multiple times when placing her order.

"When I first received the drink I was in shock that in this day and age something like this could be written,” she said during a press conference. She continued, “I felt humiliated. I felt enraged."

“This is not a simple mistake. No one puts the 'KKK' on the cup of somebody’s drink,” Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Minnesota, said at the conference.

CAIR-Minnesota is now demanding that the two employees who were involved in the incident are fired and is asking Target to better train its workforce.

“We demand Target/Starbucks to value Muslims and unequivocally reject Islamophobia. This incident and the current Islamophobia Apologist response from Target is appalling and telling of how tone deaf they are to Islamophobia and bigotry,” Hussein told TODAY via email.

When reached by TODAY, a representative for Starbucks said the chain had no comment since the alleged incident took place inside a Target, and the retailer manages those licensed Starbucks locations.

When reached via email, a representative for Target sent the following statement to TODAY: "At Target, we want everyone who shops with us to feel welcomed, valued and respected and we strictly prohibit discrimination and harassment in any form. We are very sorry for this guest’s experience at our store and immediately apologized to her when she made our store leaders aware of the situation. 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."

None of the employees involved in the incident have been laid off.