A group of Muslim teens in New Jersey are speaking out after they were harassed by a man on the street who called them ‘traitors to the country’.
Fatima Khan turned her cell phone camera on as the man, who has not been identified, followed her and four friends on their way to a mall in Jersey City.
‘I’m allowed to talk to people on the streets,’ the man tells the group of 18-year-old girls. ‘It’s important…your s****y people should go.’
‘What do you mean, your s****y people?’ one of the teens asks him. ‘She was born here, first of all, and I came here and I am an American citizen.’
A group of Muslim teens in New Jersey are speaking out after they were harassed by a man (pictured) on the street who called them ‘traitors to the country’
Fatima Khan (pictured) turned her cell phone camera on as the man, who has not been identified, followed her and four friends
The man ignores her and tells the group that they are ‘traitors to the country’.
‘In your s****y country,’ he begins to rant again before the video cuts out.
Khan said that the man also called them ‘evil’ and ‘witches’.
At first Khan and her friends – Ibtissam Jaouad, Aniza Nasir, Dolma Tsering, and Yahaira Osorio – thought the man was joking when he approached them on Tuesday.
But then the man began ‘cursing’ and saying ‘very vulgar things’, especially to Nasir, who wears a hijab, Khan told Pix 11.
‘We were all very scared and didn’t know what to do,’ she added.
The girls went to a nearby police station to report the man, but were told that little could be done since they did not know where he went.
‘I’m allowed to talk to people on the streets,’ the man tells the group of 18-year-old girls. ‘It’s important…your s****y people should go’
Khan also said that the man called them ‘evil’ and ‘witches’ as he harassed them on the street
‘We’re glad that things didn’t get out of hand and that it was handled the best way we could have,’ Khan said.
A second man later approached the girls on their way to the mall and said he was sorry that they had to go through the terrible ordeal.
The girls later said that they were surprised to experience hate speech in their hometown.
‘I don’t usually go through all that around here, especially since it’s so diverse,’ Nasir told NJ.com.
Khan has since posted the shocking video on her Twitter page, where it has been viewed more than 4,000 times
The girls went to a nearby police station to report the man, but were told that little could be done since they did not know where he went
Khan has since posted the shocking video on her Twitter page, where it has been viewed more than 4,000 times.
‘He followed us for a good few minutes talking about “you s****y people” the irony is too real. people suck,’ Khan wrote in the caption.
In another Twitter post, she addressed criticism that ‘it’s the real world get over it’.
‘Y’all aren’t seeing that this shouldn’t be tolerated PERIOD,’ she wrote. ‘Hate speech, hate crime…none of that should be tolerated.’
Now the teenagers are hoping to share their story to show how prevalent racism and hate crimes still are.