Security advisor to former president Barack Obama, Stuart Seldowitz, who was recorded on video spewing Islamophobic slurs at a halal food vendor in Manhattan, has now been arrested and is facing multiple charges.
The New York Police Department has reportedly charged Seldowitz with “aggravated harassment in the second degree, harassment, hate crime/stalking, stalking to cause fear, and stalking at place of employment”, according to communication NYPD shared with Documented.
The video has been circulating on social media where he can be seen calling the man “terrorist”.
“If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough”, he added while the vendor insists Seldowitz to leave.
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 approached the food vendor twice after the first incident.
In one of the videos, he alludes to his “friends in immigration” saying, “the Mukhabarat wants your picture,” apparently making reference to an Egyptian intelligence agency.
“The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll take them out one by one,” he continues.
Since October 7, when Hamas allegedly attacked Israel which led to Israeli attacks on Gaza, islamophobia has reportedly increased in America.
The New York Times reported that on Tuesday, the police said that no reports had been filed against Seldowitz, but they “confirmed that the commanding officer of the 19th Precinct was aware of the videos and that precinct personnel were monitoring the situation”.
NYT also writes that Seldowitz gave a phone interview in which he claims to have not seen the viral videos and that it all started when he asked the vendor if he was Egyptian. According to Seldowitz, the man supported Hamas although no such claims are recorded on any of the videos circulating the internet.
“At that point, I got rather upset and I’ve said things to him, that in retrospect, I probably regret, though — that I do regret,” Seldowitz said. “Instead of focusing in on him and what he said, I expanded into insulting his religion and so on.”
He further said that he returned to the vendor to ask him whether he was “still a supporter of Hamas,” adding that “I was upset at the fact that he was selling food in a neighborhood in New York.”
And while he is captured giving extremely offensive comments in relation to Islam, Seldowitz denies being Islamophobic.
“I’ve worked with Muslims,” he said, stating that “I have many people who are Muslims and Arabs and so on, who know me very well and who know that I’m not prejudiced against them.”
