7 Muslim women sue Urth Caffe for racial discrimination

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (FOX 11) - A group of Muslim women along with their attorneys gathered Wednesday morning in Santa Ana to announce a civil rights lawsuit filed against the popular eatery Urth Caffe.

The women claim the restaurant discriminated against them because of their religion when a restaurant employee asked them to leave.

"Had I not been with a group of friends that were wearing head scarves this would not have happened to me," plaintiff Sara Farsakh said.

Farsakh and her friends said they were eating April 22 at the Laguna Beach location when an employee asked them to leave after just an hour.

"He told us that we had 10 minutes to leave and we explained that we barely just finished our orders," she said.

Urth Caffe claims the women violated its policy which states that customers can only occupy a table for 45 minutes on busy nights.

Farsakh took a cell phone video after her friends got kicked out to show there were plenty of open tables.

That video posted to Facebook has been view more than 3,000 times.

"I did the video to show that we were not breaking any policy and what was happening to us what not ok," Farsakh said.

Urth Caffe released this statement which reads in part:

"While a full investigation is still ongoing, it appears that Ms. Farsakh and her friends violated company policies and that the staff at Urth Caffe in Laguna properly and justifiably applied company procedures."

"That policy only impacted situations in which Urth Caffe was busy and were there were no tables," Mohammad Tajsar, attorney for the women, said. "That night was not a busy night."

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