CAIR: St. Paul Target Workers Should Be Fired Over 'ISIS' Cup

SAINT PAUL, MN — The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for the firing of employees involved in an incident with a Muslim customer at the Starbucks store located inside the St. Paul-Midway Target.

The Starbucks store is operated by Target.

Aishah — whose last name was kept private — says she and a friend entered the Starbucks July 1 to order beverages. She told the employee her first name when asked, but before she finished giving her name, the employee wrote something on a cup and hid the cup from view, according to Aishah.

When she received her beverage, she says she found that the employee wrote "ISIS" in capital letters on the cup.

"I felt humiliated. I felt enraged. I felt belittled," Aishah said at a news conference Monday. "Starbucks and Target have had other similar incidents and yet no change. This has happened to me and I fear that this will continue to happen to other Muslims because Starbucks and Target do not value Muslims."

Target says the incident was caused by a misunderstanding.

"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," the company told Patch in a statement.

"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."

Editor's note: This piece has been updated for clarity