This Muslim woman was brutally assaulted and called a 'terrorist' in New York City

By Katherine Krueger  |  December 6, 2016 | 1:48pm
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It should have been a normal Monday morning commute. But then a fellow New Yorker started verbally harassing Soha Salama, 45, a Muslim woman who works for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority authority in New York City.

When Salama’s 7 train reached Grand Central Station around 7 a.m., the suspect followed her off the train and shoved her down a flight of stairs, police said.

“He called me terrorist, I shouldn’t work here, go back to country,” Salama, who was wearing her MTA uniform and hijab during the attack, told CBS New York.

She was treated for ankle and knee injuries after the incident but luckily didn’t break any bones.

Salama also said in her 20 years as a resident of New York, she’s never experienced such hate.

But the run-in comes after a string of hate crimes around the greater New York City area–including fliers for the Ku Klux Klan showing up on Long Island Rail Road trains–and a marked uptick in bias-related incidents around the country since Election Day. Muslims have frequently been targeted, with new data showing that there haven’t been this many attacks fueled by anti-Muslim sentiment since just after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

 
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