Stuart Seldowitz, a former advisor to the National Security Council under ex-US president Barack Obama, has been charged with five counts after attacking a halal street vendor in New York City.
Seldowitz, 64, allegedly targeted Mohammad Hussein, a 24-year-old Muslim street vendor in an Islamophobic attack, referring to him as a “rapist” and calling him “ignorant” for his lack of English, before going on a tirade about the Quran.
The attack comes as part of the several Islamophobic episodes in the US which exacerbated more than a month after Hamas, a Palestinian resistance group, breached Israel’s security nexus in a surprise attack. In the wake of the attack, the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government has continued to target innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip with heavy bombardment, leaving the Strip destroyed and its population displaced.
This man wearing a green jacket was berating and harassing a halal cart vendor off 83rd and 2nd Ave in NYC. Does anyone know who this man is? Planning to report to the authorities. pic.twitter.com/GwklyXpsPH
— Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
Following Seldowitz’s arrest on Wednesday night, he has been charged with two counts of aggravated harassment and three counts of stalking — one under the city’s hate crimes law, one for intent to cause fear and one for doing so at the victim’s place of employment.
Despite being charged with five counts, Seldowitz was seen being escorted out of the 19th Precinct on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with a grin on his face.
His arrest comes after shocking footage emerged this week of him telling Hussein “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children, it wasn’t enough”.
He threatened to get Hussein deported to Egypt during the sick tirade.
