UPDATED: Drunk Trump Supporters Assault Muslim Teen As Subway Riders Look On
3 White Men Yelling President-Elect’s Name Tried To Rip Off Woman’s Hijab
EDITOR’S NOTE: See update below.
Three drunk white men screaming “Donald Trump” assaulted an 18-year-old Muslim woman on a New York City subway train Thursday, as fellow passengers stood by and watched.
Yasmin Seweid, a business student who was born in the U.S., says the men hurled anti-Islam slurs at her and tried to rip the hijab off her head, according to The New York Daily News.Â
“People were looking at me and looking at what was happening and no one said a thing,” Seweid said. “They just looked away.â€
Seweid said the men screamed Trump’s name, called her a “fucking terrorist” and told her to “get the hell out of the country.”
She boarded the train and tried to ignore them, but they pulled on her bag, breaking the strap. When she told them to leave her alone, they laughed. Then they followed her to the other end of the train and tried to rip off her hijab.Â
Seweid managed to get off the train before reporting the incident to police and calling her father to pick her up.Â
“Nobody even offered to help an 18-year-old girl,†her father said. “That means something. Her phone was dying. You offer help — it doesn’t matter the race, religion, or the country.â€
Seweid assault was one of thousands of incidents involving harassment and intimidation of minorities across the nation in the wake of Trump’s victory.
In the 10 days after Nov. 8, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented 867 hate incidents, but acknowledged that many others likely have gone unreported.Â
The highest percentage of those incidents were “anti-immigrant,” followed by “anti-black,” “anti-semitic,” “anti-Muslim” and “anti-LGBT.”Â
New York recorded 69 hate incidents, second most behind California with 99.Â
UPDATE 12.15.2016 –
DNAinfo reports Seweid “was arrested on charges of filing a false report after admitting she made up the incident, sources told DNAinfo New York.”
“Seweid finally recanted Tuesday, admitting she misguidedly made up the tale to get attention because she was having issues with her family at home.”
A source explained that, given the amount of time detectives spent chasing the phony story, and how politically charged the allegation was, the police and prosecutors felt compelled to charge her, particularly since they said they had given her numerous opportunities to come clean earlier in the process. She repeatedly refused to tell the truth for weeks, they added.
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