NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: March 16, 2016
End Date: None
ISLAMOPHOBIA AT LOCAL MENARDS
Waite Park, Minn. – An employee at Menards in Waite Park, MN talked with a customer about how “dangerous” Muslims are and how they are “only pretending to be peaceful to bide their time until they can hurt people.”
On Tuesday, March 15th, a customer overheard an Islamophobic conversation involving a Menards employee. The customer told the employee she wanted to shop without hearing hate speech. The employee moved two feet away and continued the conversation. The customer then reported the incident to management and it is currently “under investigation”.
When #unitecloud reported this story, multiple people came forward to report other bigoted acts by both local and corporate Menards employees – ranging from anti-LGBT and anti-immigrant language in their corporate newsletters to a local Muslim woman being accused at the Waite Park store of plotting terrorist acts while purchasing fertilizer for her yard.
#unitecloud’s mission is to resolve tension and restore dignity to Central MN through education and actionable steps. We are calling on Menards corporation to denounce this pattern of behavior and provide their employees and management with sensitivity training. #unitecloud is able to provide this training.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Natalie Ringsmuth, #unitecloud Executive Director
natalie@unitecloud.org (404) 422-0290