Niqab wearing Muslim student racially abused in Australia, gets called 'terrorist' by a woman
The incident took place at Macquarie University in Sydney.
A woman in Australia allegedly racially abused a Muslim student, who was wearing a full face veil or niqab, by calling her a "terrorist". The incident took place at Macquarie University in Sydney and is thought to have been recorded on a camera by the victim.
The video was shared on Facebook by a user named Ramzy Alamudi, who expressed shock over the incident. He said he was at the university, where his wife attends, to celebrate her completing final medical science degree on Friday (21 January) when a woman came towards their car demanding his wife to remove the niqab.
'Why have you got a mask," the unidentified woman reportedly asked.
"As we entered the car, my wife (who wears an Islamic veil - niqab) decides to smile politely and wave innocently at the lady assuming everything was good...This is where the entire situation just turned upside down," Alamudi wrote.
"The lady flips it...she blows up in a rage ... starts pointing at my wife and screaming 'F**k you! Take it off!!' (referring to my wife's veil)," he said.
"She then runs towards our car, and I urge my wife to lock her door and start recording if anything happens. The video will tell you the rest of the story...she pounds on my window and continues to hurl racial and discriminatory slurs at my wife. 'Take it off! You Muslim terrorist!'," he added.
Alamudi said he had to get out of the car to stop the woman after she started snapping the windscreen wipers of his car. A scuffle ensued between the two when he tried to calm her down and stop her from attacking his wife, Alamudi wrote on his Facebook post.
The security at the university had to reportedly intervene to stop them.
Media reports suggested that the incident was witnessed by a few who all expressed shock that the woman was physically attacking the man.
"As myself and another bystander approach the two, we made the shocking discovery that this poor man was actually trying to fight off this woman from his wife, who was sitting inside their car behind him," Emily Grace Guff, a witness who posted a video of the altercation, said.
She added that they heard the woman claiming she "didn't feel safe" surrounded by the covered Muslim woman.
IBTimes UK is unable to verify both the videos and whether the altercation took place because of racial provocation.
The Daily Telegraph reported the incident on Sunday (22 January) and said the woman, 35, was charged with common assault and for damaging property.
She was given a field court attendance notice to appear at a local court on 13 March.
Meanwhile, Alamudi said he wanted to share the video only "to identify racism/discrimination, not further it".
"Unfortunately, this type of Islamophobia isn't isolated to this one individual and incident. Rather, it is an overarching systematic issue in our society that continues to be bred by the propaganda of some media and some politicians. Dehumanizing Muslims. This is the problem," he wrote.
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