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.
Former Obama administration official Stuart Seldowitz has been arrested after video shows Islamophobic language spewed at food vendor.
Stuart Seldowitz, 64, was arrested Wednesday on preliminary charges of hate crime/stalking, second-degree aggravated harassment, stalking… pic.twitter.com/CNEaj2ZWVq
— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 23, 2023
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.
his harassment of the Halal Cart vendor at 83rd and 2nd ave has been ongoing for two weeks.
NYPD has been called multiple times, local precinct stated that “there is nothing they can do because it is free speech”. pic.twitter.com/6LYL40TTFK— Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
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!"
this man is continuing to berate and harass the halal cart vendor. He ends the video with “if we killed 4,000 palestinian kids? It wasn’t enough”. pic.twitter.com/yhu4HSvIEZ
— Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
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.
