An Albuquerque mother taking photos of her children in Old Town says she was spit on and harassed all because she was wearing a hijab, and she caught it on video.
The mother, who is Muslim, was on the south side of the plaza in Old Town Monday afternoon with her two children, aged 11 months and 2 years, when she said a heavyset Hispanic man came up to her and asked, “Are you Christian?” Although the woman gave us permission to publish her name, The Paper. is not doing so to protect her identity as a victim and for her safety.
“I told him, ‘No, you already know I’m not.’ He said, ‘No, right, you’re Muslim. I hope you burn in hell.’” That’s when she pulled out her phone and began to video the encounter. “He knew, he already knew I was not Christian. He wanted to start something,” she told The Paper. Wednesday.
Watch the encounter on YouTube.
The video shows the man speaking with another person by phone as he loiters by a red SUV on a nearby curb. As she prompts the man to repeat what he had said, he begins walking to the SUV saying, “I’m going to get something for you.”
He remains on the sidewalk area for almost a minute spewing anti-Islamic rhetoric including, “you are going to burn in hell” and telling another person on his phone that he is taking a picture of her “bastard children.” He continues casually spewing hateful comments at the family for almost a minute before the video ends, but during the final exchange he says “four men probably fucked her in the ass ‘cuz they like it that way. She’s one of the seven brides – or seventy-two brides that they get.” The mother, standing her ground, corrects the man on Islamic theology, saying, “It’s actually four,” as she moves to photograph his license plate and he moves to enter the vehicle’s driver’s door.
It is then that the video ends but the mother says as she walked to the rear of the car to photograph his license plate, he spat on her from the open driver’s window “because I was right next to his car. I took a picture of his license plate and called 9-1-1.” She followed directions from 911 operators to leave and call police to make a report when she arrived home, which she did.
Although the first few seconds of the encounter with the man was not captured by the woman, her reports to friends, The Paper. and, later, to the Albuquerque Police Department were all consistent in the details.
Speaking to The Paper. Wednesday morning, she says that she initially did not comprehend what the man meant when he said he was retrieving something for her from her vehicle, but she later understood that he may have meant that he was going for a weapon. She says the police officer who took her report raised similar concerns and said someone would follow up within 24 hours to discuss next steps. That was Monday night and as of Wednesday morning she says she has not heard from APD.
Contacted by The Paper. on Wednesday, an Albuquerque Police spokesperson confirmed identified the man from the license plate provided by the victim. APD says the man will be summoned into court and charged with battery and a hate crime offense but the department did not respond to a request for the report or court complaint at the time of publishing.
The mother, who says she has lived in Albuquerque since 2007, tells The Paper. that this is not the first time she has felt targeted in the city. She says a shopper at Walmart began spouting anti-Muslim rhetoric from behind her late last year and a store employee escorted her to her car after. Although she did not report that incident to police, she says that experience made her more aware of the need to do so this time.
Friends, she said, encouraged her to share the video in hopes that the man can be identified. “Let people be aware of him,” she says. “I don’t want this person to do it again to someone else. If we don’t put a stop to it, or to him, he’s going to do it again, or to another woman… I want his employer to know about it because he is wearing his work badge and he has no shame in doing that while [wearing it].”
The video took on a viral nature as it was shared online and in the Muslim community earlier in the week. Several persons noted that they believed to know the identity of the man who is seen in the video wearing the nametag with a distinctive design. The Paper. has reached out to the employer but will not publish his name without independent confirmation of his identity.
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