Watch: Man Harassing Muslim Woman, Calling Her "Terrorist" Is Alarming

A video captured of a man harassing and abusing a Muslim hijabi woman at a Florida airport has exposed the spiking cases of Islamophobia in the United States of America in the midst of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The man was seen taking photographs of the Muslim traveller, Salma Khan, who was defended by fellow travellers as the man harassed her and used Islamophobic abuses against her. The sportive woman was seen smiling throughout the ordeal, but she later told the media, "It does hurt a bit, during such a helpless time, that people in power (airport authorities) didn’t step in to help."

According to Miami Herald , 27-year-old Khan approached the man when she noticed him staring at her at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. "I’m a visible Muslim woman. I wanted to make him comfortable, so I introduced myself,” she said. But her generosity was met with indifference, as the man then demanded she take off her hijab, which then escalated into abusive slurs.

Altercation Ignored By Airport Authorities

Soon after the man started screaming at Salma Khan, a few strangers came to her defence. The man began calling Khan a "terrorist," and claimed she and other Muslims hate the US, which is why he wanted her to take off her hijab to prove him otherwise. The man then began taking photos of Khan, allegedly to report her to the FBI. Khan was seen unbothered by the man's threats and began smiling and posing for the camera.

A video of the altercation was posted on TikTok, where the good samaritans can be seen asking the man to leave. "We're just all celebrating Thanksgiving," one of them can be heard saying. Khan later revealed to the media that she was displeased by the fact that only civilians came to her support while no airport authority intervened. 

It was only after 10 minutes that a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy escorted the man away from the gate before he was booked on a later flight, according to the news outlet. Khan said that police never took her name or a statement. She also said that bystanders later told her that the man had followed her around the airport as she shopped before her flight.

Spiking Religious Crimes

The incident comes in the midst of rising cases of Islamophobic violence in the USA. Most recently, on November 22, a 28-year-old Muslim woman was slashed in a New York subway. According to reports, the attacker tried to chat with the woman, however, when she ignored him, he grabbed her, made anti-Muslim remarks and cut the side of her face with a blade.

Since the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, cases of religion-based crimes have spiked in the USA. According to a press release by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), they received 774 complaints of hate crimes since the Israeli airstrikes launched a month ago, stating it as the highest number of complaints. 312 cases of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault during the first two weeks of the war. Nearly five times more than the same time last year.