Muslim woman says Sound Credit Union discriminated against her for wearing hood

A Muslim-American woman said she was kicked out of the Kent branch of Sound Credit Union Friday for wearing a hood — even as other customers were allowed to wear head coverings.

Jamela Mohamed, who is a member of the credit union, recorded part of the incident on her cell phone. Mohamed, who was there to pay a bill, records a sign asking customers to remove hats, hoods and sunglasses — and she also records several white male customers who were not asked to remove their hats.

“I am a black Muslim woman and was observing Jummah, so I had my hood on,” Mohamed said on her Facebook post, which went viral over the weekend.

The video, also posted to YouTube, shows a supervisor threatening to call 9-1-1, and following Mohamed outside to her car to take note of her license plate.

Mohamed and her attorney told KOMO-TV that the issue was not with the rule asking customers to remove their hats and hoods, but with the unequal treatment.

Sound Credit Union posted an apology on its Facebook page and Twitter Saturday night, saying that they have looked into the situation.

“As a result, we are looking at our procedures and training and will make changes to make sure that a situation like this never happens again. It is clear our training needs to include more empathy and sensitivity to all cultures, because as a credit union we believe in equal treatment of all people.”

8 Comments

  1. Wow! She should NOT be in Customer Service in any way! What a disgusting display of disrespect, and if your going to be a racist, at least know the difference between a headscarf and hood.

  2. That was a head scarf. Wow. What is wrong with my country! Our founding fathers would be disgusted!

  3. Quit causing drama. First off, you didn’t mind taking your hood off in your car. The sign at the credit union clearly says remove hats, hoods, and sunglasses. It doesn’t matter if three people before you have hats on. The issue is that you didn’t remove your scarf.

    1. NO, the issue is that the policy wasn’t being uniformly enforced. A little reading comprehension goes a LONG way.

    2. No, actually, there has to be a religious exemption. You cannot make a rule that violates someones religious beliefs and say “well, no, EVERYONE has to do it!” We DO have the 1st Amendment that says you can’t do that. Time after time after time, the courts has said “no, you can’t do that!”

  4. Idk why or how I missed this but I want to know a detailed report of what they’ve done!

    I would like to hear from the victim if they reached out to her personally and if the ignorant hateful woman apologized.

    She was brazen enough to publicly humiliate and discriminate, is she grown enough to publicly apologize?

    Just posting a statement saying they’re looking into it (?) isn’t good enough!

Comments are closed.

8 Comments

  1. Wow! She should NOT be in Customer Service in any way! What a disgusting display of disrespect, and if your going to be a racist, at least know the difference between a headscarf and hood.

  2. That was a head scarf. Wow. What is wrong with my country! Our founding fathers would be disgusted!

  3. Quit causing drama. First off, you didn’t mind taking your hood off in your car. The sign at the credit union clearly says remove hats, hoods, and sunglasses. It doesn’t matter if three people before you have hats on. The issue is that you didn’t remove your scarf.

    1. NO, the issue is that the policy wasn’t being uniformly enforced. A little reading comprehension goes a LONG way.

    2. No, actually, there has to be a religious exemption. You cannot make a rule that violates someones religious beliefs and say “well, no, EVERYONE has to do it!” We DO have the 1st Amendment that says you can’t do that. Time after time after time, the courts has said “no, you can’t do that!”

  4. Idk why or how I missed this but I want to know a detailed report of what they’ve done!

    I would like to hear from the victim if they reached out to her personally and if the ignorant hateful woman apologized.

    She was brazen enough to publicly humiliate and discriminate, is she grown enough to publicly apologize?

    Just posting a statement saying they’re looking into it (?) isn’t good enough!

Comments are closed.