By Although Zeinab Mohamed bakes cakes and other sweet goodies for others, she received a not so sweet message from one of her customers.
Mohamed, who runs a cake business from home called SweetcakeZ in Grand Rapids, Michigan, received a message from one of her customers to cancel the order she put in because Mohamed and her husband were Muslim.
The message said:
“Hey actually were [sic] going to order our cake somewhere else my husband just found out your [sic] Muslim. And I’m not against it but he is because he was in Iraq fighting for our country against your people. He even changed his new doctor because the new one he was referred to was Muslim and he just said somethings [sic] and said he doesnt [sic] feel comfortable having you make our cake. I’m so sorry.”
Mohamed was shocked to receive such a hateful message, and was left speechless, especially since her own husband is a veteran.
“It was horrible,” she said in an interview. “I didn’t even tell my husband about it at first because actually talking abut it was painful. I literally cried any time I had to talk about it. So I wrote about it on my wall, and there was so much conversation going on from my friends. I never felt so low and small in my life. It was an awful experience.”
Mohamed said this incident will not discourage her from baking, and once she finishes her master’s degree, she would like to think of growing her at-home business.
“I wouldn’t say it discouraged me to bake, it just made me really sad. As if I was at a standstill,” she said. [I’m] deep in my own thoughts trying to figure it all out. However, the amount of support that I have received … has been amazing. It’s given me hope that maybe this will all work itself out.”
Mohamed said she’s passionate about baking.
“It took me a long time to find something that I was truly passionate about and enjoyed doing. Something that felt like every cake I made was an adventure, a creative journey,” she said. “Because I have always been big on education, they are both outlets for me to express myself in different types avenues.”
Be sure to check out her Facebook page and support her if you are in the Grand Rapids area.