Haneen Jasim is a pre-med student at the University of Cincinnati, and on Sunday she was returning home from a study session at a local Starbucks when she says a man in a car called her a terrorist and tried to run over her.
According to Jasim, the man began honking his horn, cursing, and calling her a terrorist as she crossed the street. He then drove directly at her.
Haneen Jasim is a Muslim and was wearing the traditional covering for Muslim women, a hijab.
Friends of Jasim’s grabbed her and pulled her to safety on the sidewalk before the car could harm her.
Looking back on the horrifying incident, Jasim commented:
“Within an instant he tried to run over me. If it wasn’t for the three people in front of me, grabbing me onto the sidewalk, I would have been dead right there.”
Jasim was able to get a good look at the man’s license plate as she drove away, so she didn’t notify the police. Instead,she called the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR says this is the third such incident of anti-Muslim harassment in Cincinnati since the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. Karen Dabdoub, executive director of the local CAIR chapter remarked:
“It’s very disappointing, as well that people in our community would stoop so low. Obviously, the people here had nothing to do with the Paris attack or any terrorist attacks or terrorist ideology for that matter.”
For her part, Jasim says she is now very afraid:
“(It’s) very upsetting, very scary. I’m very, very nervous for me, my friends, my family. I’m terrified to cross the street now.”
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.