This time last year, as the holy month of Ramadan was coming to an end, a fasting Muslim woman carrying a backpack full of food was tackled by Chicago police during her commute home. Then the police kicked her and strip searched her in public.
According to the victim, Itemad “Angel” Almatar, she was running to catch a train on July 4, when five officers profiled and apprehended her on a flight of steps. “They threw me to the stairs, and grabbed my bags. They kicked me, hit me, took off my hijab,” she told CBS Chicago. They also asked her humiliating questions about why she is Muslim and why she was covering her body, before conducting an invasive strip search in front of bystanders.
Surveillance footage captured by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) shows Almatar running up a stairwell when two officers come from behind and shove her to the ground. Three more officers watch as she’s searched on the stairs.
Watch it here:
The officers arrested her on the spot, and she was later charged for resisting arrest and reckless conduct. This week, nearly one year after the violent encounter, Almatar was found not guilty. She already has plans to file a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in the future.
Almatar said she feared for her life and thought she was “close to die (sic).”
The attack on Almatar wasn’t an isolated event. Muslims across the country have faced an uptick of hate crimes in recent months. Following the brutal terrorist attack in Paris last November, more than 80 Muslims living in the U.S. have been assaulted, profiled, harassed, and threatened. The Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reports that the violent encounters have come as a backlash to the Paris tragedy.
Islamaphobia is also proliferating in response to presidential candidate Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric. Throughout his campaign, Trump has called for a ban on Muslim immigration, surveillance of Muslim communities, and the establishment of a database of all of the Muslims in the country. He also claims that “Islam hates us.”