Former Obama Adviser Arrested in New York City for Islamophobic remarks and harassing a halal cart vendor

Former Obama White House adviser Stuart Seldowitz was arrested on Wednesday by the New York Police for allegedly harassing a halal cart vendor in New York City. Two separate videos shot at different times of the day showed the accused calling the victim a “terrorist”, threatening him with deportation, berating him for not speaking English, and remarking that if 4000 children were killed in Palestine then “it wasn’t enough”. He was arrested on charges of aggravated harassment, hate crime stalking, stalking causing fear, and stalking in a place of employment.

In one of the two separate videos shot at different times, Seldowitz could be seen trying to intimidate the vendor with detention and taking his picture, saying that the Mukhabarat (Egyptian Intelligence Agency) wants his picture. He further stated that the Mukhabarat would ‘get his parents’ and torture his father. Seldowitz followed this with a barrage of Islamophobic comments. The vendor could be heard saying that he does not speak English to which Seldowitz responded by calling the vendor “ignorant” and followed up with more provocative comments.

In another video, Seldowitz could be seen calling the vendor a “terrorist” for ‘supporting terrorism’. The vendor kept asking Seldowitz to leave. The video ended with Seldowitz saying, “If we killed 4000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough…”

Before his detention, Seldowitz had told local media that he got upset when the vendor sympathised with the Palestinian group Hamas; this claim, however, cannot be verified from the two videos at hand. The accused told the media, “The comments that went beyond him [the vendor] could be interpreted as attacks on Muslims and Arab-Americans and so on, were probably not appropriate.” However, Seldowitz went on to defend his actions by saying that his comments about the vendor supporting terrorism were appropriate according to him.

64-year-old Stuart Seldowitz previously served as the acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate and senior political officer in the State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs during the tenure of former President Barrack Obama.