Man describes 'saddest moment' Muslim taxi driver breaks down in wake of Paris attacks

'It was one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve ever experienced in my whole life'

(Reuters)

A man has spoken out against Islamophobia following a moving conversation he had with a Muslim taxi driver in New York City following Friday’s terror attacks in Paris.

Alex Malloy, 23, described “one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve ever experienced in my whole life” when he got into a Muslim taxi driver’s car only to find he was his first customer in two hours.

Alex Malloy, 23 (Facebook)

Mr Malloy took to Twitter to share his story, and to urge the public not to generalise.

He wrote: “For 25 mins [sic] I had to tell this stranger, this human being like you & I, that he was not apart of what was happening & how sorry I was people were looking at him with fear or anger.”The taxi driver cried the whole duration of their journey, moving Mr Malloy to tears as well. In his post, he implored the public to be sympathetic towards “victims of discrimination” and to stop generalising the community because of the actions of terrorists.

“He kept saying ‘allah, my God does not believe in this! People think I’m apart of this and I’m not. Nobody wants to drive with me bc they feel unsafe. I can’t even do my job’,” he wrote. “These are not our enemy’s. These are our friends, neighbors and allies… And they deserve nothing more than our respect and attention.”

The post was shared on Twitter over 55,000 times, and has garnered a mostly positive response from social media users, many of whom are Muslims thanking him for bringing the issue to light.

Mr Malloy told the Huffington Post the response to his post has been immensely moving. "To see people come together over something I had written and saying, 'This is so important'... it made me cry," he said.