IHOP Muslim Workers Told to “Lay Low” Every 9/11

a lawsuit has been filed against International House of Pancakes and the owners of some of their franchises in the Fort Worth Texas area. The lawsuit was filed by four former Muslim workers who claimed they were fired for being Muslim. The men are also alleging that alleging that company officials harassed them and made derogatory comments against them going as far as to tell them to “Lay Low” on September 1th anniversaries.

Speaking at a demonstration outside on of the IHOP’s in question, the men’s attorney said,

“How do you explain that you’re going to allow comments about their religion, how Arabic men treat women, how they get an email every Sept. 11 saying lay low from their managers. What does that mean?”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently issued a ruling that there is a strong likelyhood at least two of the former employees were harassed at work. IHOP is disputing the findings.

IHOP is no stranger to these type of suits. An Ohio IHOP was successfully sued by an Ohio man after he had to endure a work environment that was plagued by racist comments.

Also, this year IHOP is not the only chain to be featured for their treatment of Muslims. The Council of American-Islamic relations alleged in interviews that the Whole Foods supermarket chain had fired employees because they were Muslim.

Hertz also fired 25 Muslim employees last year. The official reason is that the employees refused to clock out to go pray. Hertz said it was repeatedly explained to the employees that they were allotted two 10 minute breaks a day and prayers needed to be held at those time and for those durations.