Irrational Games Employee Walks Out of Restaurant After Owner Says it is a "Muslim Free Zone"

[Shawn Zipay]

Tara Voelker is a QA Lead at Irrational Games. She also apparently likes eating out a restaurants like most normal human beings.

Earlier today, Voelker left her once favorite establishment after the restaurant owner came up to her and said that it was a "Muslim free zone." It was even said with a smile to Voelker and her husband.

It’d been a little bit crazy today (you know, the whole city on lock down thing) so we weren’t really in the mood to cook. We went to Fore River Grille in North Weymouth for dinner. We walked in, sat down, and placed a drink order.

The owner, Teresa, walked over smiling. No big deal, like we said, we were regulars. Then she just said to us. “I wanted to let you guys know this is a Muslim free zone! ” And just kept smiling.

Dumb founded, I just said, “Wow. Not all terrorists are Muslim. Timothy Mcveigh wasn’t, he was Christian. Want to hate others to?”

She replied, “Yeah, but that was 20 years ago. All the current terrorists are Muslims. It’s true. Name a terrorist attack more recent that wasn’t done Muslims.” She was completely serious.

I was completely floored. At this point I said, “I’m going to eat somewhere else,” grabbed my sweatshirt and left.

As I began to walk out, she started to say she was sorry. I kept walking.

My husband, who was with me at the restaurant, says that after I left Teresa said “I was just joking.”

Max said to her “I get you are joking, but it’s not funny. A Muslim woman has already been assaulted in Mass. today because of this, so it’s just not cool.”

The restaurant is the Fore River Grille in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Already tons of negative reviews have started to pour in to the Fore River Grille Yelp page that slam the establishment and its owner for the anti-Islamic garbage that spewed from the owner's mouth today.

Perhaps they were unaware that the Internet exists and that it can be a very powerful tool for outing bigotry.

Voelker says that the weak apology did not mean much as she has zero tolerance for discrimination. Her "strong moral convictions" prevent her from giving money to a business "that is owned by a woman who thinks it’s funny to say that she won’t let people of a particular religion at her establishment, or who legitimately meant that all terrorists are Muslims."

(via Thoughts from a Gamer)

[cikame]

I wouldn't really say this was anti religion, but it definately is a very poorly timed bad joke from a stupid person.

[papasmurf128]

I understand and agree the joke might have been in bad taste, but the owner still had the right to refuse anyone she wanted. If people don't like how she acted they don't have to go there, and shouldn't bash her just because she believes in something different from them.

[Shawn Zipay]

I wouldn't really say this was anti religion, but it definately is a very poorly timed bad joke from a stupid person.

Those who follow the Islam religion are called Muslims, regardless of their race or nationality. That's about as anti-religion as you can get.

I understand and agree the joke might have been in bad taste, but the owner still had the right to refuse anyone she wanted. If people don't like how she acted they don't have to go there, and shouldn't bash her just because she believes in something different from them.

Yeah, Hitler should have just been left to do whatever he wanted in Europe. The KKK is just misunderstood, let's not oppose them or the bigotry they stand for. The Westboro Baptist Church should just be left to picket and protest funerals and gay rights events without any opposition.

Or hell, let's just not stand up against or oppose or talk badly about any of the groups on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ypes_of_groups

... because they believe something different from us.

[Thortok2000]

It was a stupid anti-religious joke. I don't know the woman, but I assume from the 'just kidding' comment and the smile that she didn't mean any harm or offense. What's stupid is I don't get how she thought it wouldn't be offensive and could still be smart enough to own or run a business.

While I agree she has the right to kick out whoever she wants (although I don't think from the context that was actually her goal), I would also like to point out that we customers have the right to spread the word about her actions and boycott her business in return.

Then again, how many people boycott chik-fil-a for being very much anti-gay? And EA's the worst company of all, for two years, and they're still making money, mostly.

[papasmurf128]

I think comparing her to Hitler is a little much, but I see what you mean. I do apologize if I came off as insensitive, but one person making a joke that was out of place to someone maybe she thought she knew since they were regulars does not mean she should be blacklisted. Now if she caused physical harm to the customer all bets would be off.

[Shawn Zipay]

But that's how it starts though. One person makes a joke or says something offensive and it just snowballs from there. There was already one reported case of someone being assaulted this week following the bombing simply because she was Muslim: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3112065.html

[Rayzn]

the title confused me for a minute or two.

[Eagle101]

This is somewhat the same thing as "we don't serve coloreds, only whites" look i am a Muslim, and i come from a nation of 1.5 billion followers so is it safe to say that all 1.5 billion are terrorists? all Hispanics are illegal? Are Africans all gang bangers? All Jews are greedy, so on and so forth. Stereotypes. I hate them.

I am a Muslim, yes i enjoy killing people, blowing stuff up, stealing shit...in video games.


EDIT: furthermore it is sad about the Boston marathon bombing, people die to stupid things like this all over the world, its just sad to see kids and in general very much innocent people die to stupid causes such as this. My sincerest condolences to the victims. People will continue to be victims of shit happenings like this unfortunately.

[CptainCrunch]

Thats unfortunate. Though the restaurant has the right, its really a bad decision.

Hatred things like this only fuels the hate. You can stand firm in your beliefs and still show compassion and love for one another.

Also, on the Hitler remarks, we should remember that the war didn't start because of the atrocities of people. As much as we all like to take credit for stopping an evil like that, it wasn't the reason.

[Shawn Zipay]

Nobody ever said it was.

[CptainCrunch]

let's not oppose them or the bigotry they stand for.

OK, the above statement made it seem like the bigotry of Hitler was the reason for the comment. Since no one did anything about it until the end and they also gave him a few countries before the war, they didn't do much to dissuade him of his actions, not that it would have stopped him anyway.

[MurderDogg]

Who would get confort in "Teresa" the Grill owners assurance of a "Muslim Free Zone :)" anyway? Thanks Teresa I feel safe and secure knowing that you have no muslims in in your establishment. :)

[K-16]

Yelp.com no longer shows any reviews from April 19th, and the restaurant's rating has shot back up from 3/5 to 4/5 stars as a result of it. Perhaps the reviews were removed because some of them have never actually been to the restaurant, but it's unfortunate to see the legit reviewers are also being silenced.

Also worth noting is the number of reviews being filtered, which is why the distribution of reviews chart, and the trend chart are in direct contradiction to the reviews displayed. I am mentioning this because the reviews filtered are not the reviews from April 19th, which means Yelp.com has the choice of hiding them (which nullifies the reviewer's rating, but does not affect the distribution/trend charts), or removing them completely (which also affects the distribution/trend charts). I wonder how much suppressed information were from spam, abusive, and legit reviews? Not too sure how reliable this website is now...

[Shawn Zipay]

Yelp.com no longer shows any reviews from April 19th, and the restaurant's rating has shot back up from 3/5 to 4/5 stars as a result of it. Perhaps the reviews were removed because some of them have never actually been to the restaurant, but it's unfortunate to see the legit reviewers are also being silenced.

Also worth noting is the number of reviews being filtered, which is why the distribution of reviews chart, and the trend chart are in direct contradiction to the reviews displayed. I am mentioning this because the reviews filtered are not the reviews from April 19th, which means Yelp.com has the choice of hiding them (which nullifies the reviewer's rating, but does not affect the distribution/trend charts), or removing them completely (which also affects the distribution/trend charts). I wonder how much suppressed information were from spam, abusive, and legit reviews? Not too sure how reliable this website is now...

Yeah, I'll be sure not to trust Yelp ever if they're so willing to remove user reviews. That's the biggest crock I've seen in quite some time.