Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

American Muslim woman catches moment man calls her a 'b***h' and asks for green card

The incident happened a day after President Trump instated a ‘travel ban’ on seven Muslim majority countries 

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
Tuesday 31 January 2017 13:39 GMT
Comments
Muslim woman films moment man calls her a bitch and asks if she has a green card

A Muslim woman has filmed the moment a man in a coffee shop called her a “b****” and asked if she had a green card, after she confronted him over allegedly taking a picture of her.

Asma Elhuni, 39, an American citizen and legislative intern for State Representative Brenda Lopez in Atlanta, Georgia, filmed the man laughing at her when she asked why he had taken her picture.

The man, named as Rob in the video, is seen sitting down at the table opposite Ms Elhuni as he asks why she is “uptight”. When she responds by saying, “I’d like to know why you’re coming in here and taking a picture of me,” Rob says he wanted to take a picture of a man who looked like a DJ in the coffee shop and upload it onto Facebook, before telling her, “and then you started acting like a b****.”

Ms Elhuni asks what the man does for a living, which he responds to by saying: “Do you have a green card?”

The incident happened a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending immigration from seven majority Muslim countries, and placing a four-month suspension on America’s refugee program.

Ms Elhuni posted a video of the exchange with the man, identified as “Rob from Detroit,” on Facebook with the message: “Fight back with your cameras y’all.” She claims the man had taken his camera out and had taken a picture of her, and that when she asked if that was what he was doing, he replied “Yes”.

“So I took out my phone and started recording him,” she wrote. “Spread widely. Racists feel emboldened now.”

One witness of the incident, who was not named, told Creative Loafing: "It was hard to tell what was happening from across the room, but it was clear the guy was harassing her.

"It was impressive how quickly the woman diffused the situation, and it was reassuring to see people coming to her defence once they realised what was going on."

Ms Elhundi’s post has been shared over 18,000 times and has garnered thousands of comments of support.

A screengrab of a post by Rob Koehler (Facebook)

One Facebook user posted a screen grab of a post from a user called Rob Koehler on Facebook, who claimed Ms Elhundi’s “radical” friends contacted him and threatened to kill him. He apologised to his friends and colleagues in the post before thanking Ms Elhundi, claiming he has learned and “will grow from this experience”.

The post shows a picture of the coffee shop, and says: “I was confronted by a Muslim activist at this coffee shop. She was concerned I was taking her picture. As you can see by this image she was not even in it. I thought it was a really neat environment and was going to share it on Facebook.

“Asma Elhundi then accosted me for simply taking a picture. Her radical friends then started contacting me and telling me they were going to kill me. I could say at this moment that I agree with Donald Trump’s stance on immigration. But the truth is I don’t, this is a land of immigrants.

“To all my friends, family, colleagues, clients and vendors, my apologies. I could’ve handled the situation better. I will get better and be better from this experience. Thank you Asma I have learned and I will grow from this experience.”

The Facebook account for Rob Koelher linked with the post appears to have been closed.

Activists on Facebook are understood to have identified the man's place of work and have left pages of one star reviews of the business on Yelp, with many calling for him to be fired.

The company the man is understood to work for, the Computer Service & Network Centre in Columbus, Georgia, has closed its Facebook and Twitter pages and redirected them to Wix’s social media pages, which also created its website.

A statement from the management at the Computer Service & Network Centre published on its website said the company had been made aware of an incident in Atlanta on 28 January.

“We in no way condone what was said nor do we support racism in any way. This will be addressed once we have all the information. HR has been made aware of the situation and our legal group will be as well,” the company said.

The statement added that while members of the public are welcome to voice their opinion, the business has “received several calls threatening the business and employees”.

“Please be aware that these calls are being turned over to the appropriate authorities,” the company stated.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in