Justice

Zara Is In Trouble Over This Anti-Muslim Incident

November 17th 2015

Zara issued an apology after a video surfaced online of a worker forbidding a woman wearing a hijab to enter a Paris store.

The clip was uploaded a day after the horrific series of Paris attacks and as BuzzFeed News, it's unclear whether the incident took place before or after the tragedy in Paris, but the fact that it was posted online the next day has many thinking there may have been a connection between the encounter and the attacks.

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The video below shows a Zara staff member telling a woman in a hijab that customers are not allowed to wear anything on their heads in the store. When the female asks if a veil is OK, the workers responds in French, "If things change, they’ll change but I don’t make the rules,” as translated by BuzzFeed News.


The video caused quite a stir on Twitter:

After a slew of people took to social media to criticize Zara regarding the exchange, the company apologized with this statement:

“We would like to sincerely apologise for what has happened. Our Country Head in France has personally contacted this customer to apologise for the incident and to express our utter disagreement with such actions, which are completely opposite to the principles of our Company. Both the security staff and the store manager have been sanctioned. Once again, we are deeply sorry about this.”

The Zara story comes at a difficult moment for Muslims around the world who often face Islamophobia. Although the Islamic State doesn't represent the majority of people who practice Islam, many have chosen to overlook and ignore this reality in the wake of Paris' attacks.

This past weekend, a 2014 CNN segment featuring Iranian-American writer Reza Aslan went viral because of his previous remarks on the unfair treatment of Muslims in the world. He exposed some of the challenges facing Muslims.

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"Islam doesn't promote violence or peace," Aslan said. "Islam is just a religion and like every religion in the world it depends on what you bring to it. If you're a violent person, your Islam, your Judaism, your Christianity, your Hinduism is gonna be violent."

The Active Change Foundation's year-old #NotInMyName Twitter campaign also resurfaced after the Paris attacks. #NotInMyName enables Muslims to publicly condemn ISIS and relay to others that the terrorist group does not represent them at all.

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