Singapore Indian-Muslim couple shooed away from free Ramadan goodies by NTUC FairPrice staff
Supermarket chain apologises to couple for employee's behaviour, says it has given him counselling
SINGAPORE - An Indian-Muslim couple were rudely shooed away by an NTUC FairPrice employee from a free Iftar goodie packs booth on Sunday (9 April) at the supermarket chain's Our Tampines Hub outlet.
Farah Nadya, a clinical director, wrote about her unpleasant weekly grocery encounter in a Facebook post that quickly went viral.
While reading the stand-board signage at the booth, Nadya's husband Jahabar was approached by a staff member and asked to leave.
“Not for India, not for India," said the staff member.
Jahabar, who is of Indian race, responded in disbelief and questioned the staff.
“Not for India, don’t take. Go away," replied the staff member repeatedly.
Jahabar proceeded to calmly explain to the staff member that Indians can be Muslims and that not all Malays are Muslims.
“I don’t know. I no education, the top people tell me to say like this. I don’t know. Just go away," said the staff member, who continued to ask the couple to walk away from the booth.
Netizens supportive of Muslim couple, question NTUC FairPrice
Netizens have flooded the comments section in support of the couple with many volunteering to share the post to spread awareness. It has since garnered over 1,000 shares.
"I'm going to share this for awareness. Very disgraceful of NTUC to train their staff in this manner. I empathise with the staff because as he explained, he was merely following orders and would probably be told off if a non-Malay took the item. It's basically ignorance and insensitivity," commented a Facebook user.
Others were quick to label the incident as a racist act and expressed disgust. A few had tagged NTUC FairPrice's Facebook page in request of a response and for action to be taken.
Some netizens were more understanding and forgiving towards the staff member.
Public apology with couple contacted and employee counselled
NTUC FairPrice told Yahoo Southeast Asia that the couple has since been contacted and their concerns have been addressed with the matter closing amicably.
"We take this matter seriously and would like to apologise for the incident. We have since also counselled our employee accordingly," it said in a statement.
The supermarket chain also responded with a Facebook post on Monday afternoon, announcing their awareness of the incident and expressing their apology. Netizens have responded positively to the post.
This is the 15th year NTUC FairPrice is running the community initiative of offering Muslim customers dates and refreshments 30 minutes before and after Iftar - the meal taken after evening prayers during Ramadan.
The supermarket chain also clarified that Iftar packs are offered free of charge to all Muslim customers during the month-long Ramadan period until 21 April.
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