A 35-year-old has been caught on camera taunting a Muslim couple at Macquarie University.
Ramzy Alamundi and his wife, a medical science student at the Sydney university, were about to leave the grounds to go celebrate the completion of her final exam. Mr Alamundi claims they were quietly minding their own business when a woman spotted them from across the car park.
“As we entered the car, my wife (who wears an Islamic veil – niqab) decides to smile politely and wave innocently at the lady assuming everything was good… This is where the entire situation just turned upside down,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
A niqab covers the body and head but has an opening for the eyes.
He claims the women “flips it” and displays her middle finger.
Now aware of the trouble they were in, the couple get into their car and lock the doors. However the woman continues to unleash her anger on the couple’s vehicle, bashing on the car windows and doors and even lifting the windshield wiper. When Mr Alamundi asks why she was so angry, the abusive woman shouts that her problem is with Mrs Alamundi’s niqab.
“Who are you? Why are you wearing mask? Are you terrorist?” the woman can be heard shouting through the window.
Mr Alamundi subsequently opened the car door and shooed her away from the vehicle after which time campus security was called.
Emily Grace Guff, another student who witnessed the attack, said in a Facebook post: “Never in my life have I been unfortunate enough to witness such repulsive behaviour from one human being to another.”
She alleges the abusive woman said she did not feel safe around someone dressed in a niqab and was demanding to see Mrs Alamundi’s ID.
“The whole time this woman was having her rant, her baby was sitting in her unlocked car, metres from where she was hurling abuse.”
Guff says this sort of incident is as “un-Australian as they come”.
The abusive woman has since been charged with common assault and damage and/or destroy property. She will face Burwood Local Court on March 13.
