Coffee shop refuses to serve man who insulted woman in a niqab

RIVERSIDE, California — A California coffee shop worker refused to serve a customer who insulted a Muslim woman wearing a niqab in a confrontation recorded on video.

The Press-Enterprise reports the clip posted online was shot at a Riverside Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

It shows a man asking “Is this Halloween?” while standing in front of the woman wearing the head covering. When the woman confronts him, he replies he doesn’t like her religion.

Voices can be heard shouting for the man to leave. A supervisor who identifies herself as Tawny Alfaro refuses to sell him coffee while saying he was being disruptive and racist.

In the video, the man turns to the woman and asks, “Is it Halloween or something?” When she replies, “Do you know I am a Muslim?” and inquires whether he has a problem with it, he says, “I don’t like your religion, how’s that?” and adds, “I don’t want to be killed by you.”

The incident took place Friday at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shop in Riverside east of Los Angeles.

In the confrontation, the woman says: “You are committing hate speech against me” as another customer is heard shouting at the man from across the room, invoking the f-word and calling him a racist. A barista behind the counter who identifies herself as the supervisor said she isn’t serving the man because he’s being disruptive and “being very racist.” He then leaves. This latest video, posted to YouTube, comes a month after Starbucks became embroiled in a controversy over racism at a Philadelphia location. In that incident, also videotaped, a manager called police after two black men came to wait for a friend, but didn’t order anything.

Police arrested the pair for trespassing, but Starbucks didn’t press charges.

Both the coffee giant and police later apologized.