Former Obama adviser Stuart Seldowitz arrested and charged for hate crime

In recordings broadcast on social networks, the former diplomat can be seen telling a halal seller that he will call his "friends in Immigration" and calling him a terrorist.

Captura de pantalla del exasesor de Obama Stuart Seldowitz increpando a un vendedor de halal en Nueva York. — (Twitter @itslaylas)

Published by

Santiago Ospital

23 de noviembre, 2023

Topics:

islamophobia

Barack Obama's former National Security Advisor, Stuart Seldowitz (64), was arrested and charged with a hate crime on Wednesday, after a series of videos went viral in which he berated a halal seller in New York, identified as Mohamed Hussein.

In one of the recordings, Seldowitz threatens to call his "friends in Immigration" and says that Egypt's secret service, the Mukhabarat, wants his photo and that he will remove his father's fingers "one by one." He then asks him if he raped his daughter, "like Muhammad did," and he recommends that you learn English:

You should learn English, it’ll help you when they deport you back to Egypt and the Mukhabarat wants to interview you.

In another video, after accusing the young man of being a terrorist, Seldowitz maintains: "If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children, you know what? It wasn’t enough!"

Seldowitz apologized, acknowledging that he had said "things that probably I shouldn't have said" in an interview with City & State, published on Tuesday. However, he maintained that he was not "Islamophobic" and that he began arguing with the seller as he supported Hamas.

The NYPD reported that the preliminary charges against Seldowitz are hate crime, second-degree aggravated harassment, harassment causing fear and workplace harassment, according to CNN. Hussein, the attacked merchant, said he wanted to sue the former diplomat, and his boss, Islam Moustafa, said they wanted to accuse him of "harassment and inciting hatred," according to the New YorkPost.