McDonald's staff tells Muslim woman to take off her headscarf or she'll not be served

A McDonald's security guard has sparked public outrage after he refused to service a Muslim woman because she was wearing a headscarf.. 

The 19-year-old student claims she was inside the fast food outlet in north London when the security guard told her to remove her scarf or leave. The young woman confronted the security guard as he refuses to back down and it was caught on film.

In the footage, she's seen telling the guard that she's been in the UK for 19 years and has never faced such discrimination. She says she goes to other restaurants and no one gives her problems, then she goes to McDonald's that's just down the road from her house and she's being discriminated against. She went on to tell the guard that it was a hate crime.

The video, which was uploaded to Twitter, shows the student in the doorway of McDonald's on Seven Sisters Road in Holloway.

She asks: "Why can't I come in to McDonald's? Because I'm wearing a hijab?"

He then replies "no" as members of the public appeal with him.

The guard says: "It's just a matter of taking it off..."

A member of the public steps in to tell the security guard he has no right to stop the woman ordering food. But the security guard refuses to change his mind and simply adds: "No".

The woman adds:

This is a hate crime. I just want to know who's implementing this policy because this is f***ing ridiculous. I'm so shocked right now. I've been living in the UK for 19 years and this is the first time I'm faced with this kind of discrimination.

The woman, who asked not to be named, later told the Guardian:

I thought: ‘It’s finally happening to me,’ like it has to so many hijabis. It didn’t feel real because I had seen so many videos like this and it was finally happening to me in real life. I was in so much disbelief.

The friend I was with was shocked and scared, and said it was a risky situation. When it was over, I finally realised how these situations can become dangerous. This is not a one-off thing.

I will never walk into a McDonald’s again.

A spokeswoman for McDonald’s apologised for the incident and said the chain does not have such a policy in place. She added that McDonald's is "addressing this with the individuals involved".

A McDonald's restaurant in London refuses to serve a Muslim woman because she's wearing a hijab.

In the 1930s, German businesses began refusing service to Jews right before the Nazis implemented the "Final Solution." pic.twitter.com/zPaNwATT6i

— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) December 1, 2017