Teen faces jail for false anti-Muslim harassment claims
Yasmin Seweid, who had filed false anti-Muslim harassment reports, now faces at least a year in jail
December 16, 2016
An American Muslim teenager faces two years in prison after admitting that she made up a hate crime story to escape curfew by her parents.
18-year-old Yasmin Seweid of New Hyde Park admitted on Wednesday that she had made up the story of a race- and religion-based assault that surfaced last week. The Muslim girl had claimed that three drunk, white men had cornered her on a NYC subway train, and proceeded to harass her.
Seweid, who is now in police custody, had alleged that the verbal attack took place around 10 PM on December 1 while on her way back home from a college event. According to her, the men came unusually close to her, and start speaking. She said she didn’t hear them distinctly since she was wearing headphones.
However, it was when they called her a “terrorist” and started pulling at her bag strap that she turned around to ask them to leave her alone, as per her fake story. She emphasized that she was surprised when no one even batted an eye.
“They kept saying, ‘you don’t belong here, get out of this country, go back to your country,’ and finally they came really close and they were like, ‘take that rag off your head,’” Seweird had recounted her concocted tale.
In addition, the girl commented on how President-elect Trump is the reason behind an escalation in profile-based discrimination.
The accused faces about a year in prison two charges – registering fake report and hindering government processes – after she confessed her story was a ruse to escape her strict, conservative parents’ curfew.
Reports suggest that her “family problems” were staying out late, drinking, and dating a non-Muslim. However, no source has directly confirmed any of these. Supposedly, the reason her head was shaved is that her parents were displeased with the incident.
Post-2016 election campaigns and result, hate crimes have risen significantly. While various reports mention how minorities and ethnic groups have been target by Trump supporters, false alarms such as the aforementioned one considerably weaken the credibility of actual cases where racial profiling occurs and goes unresolved.
