Islamophobia on Aisle Five

Rasa - A woman's uncorroborated Facebook post describing the alleged incident has been shared thousands of times.

News ID: 424984

Date: 12 November 2016 - 17:34

RNA - On 9 November 2016, a Muslim woman named Maha Abdul Gawad posted the following story on Facebook of a confrontation she alleged took place at a WalMart store in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 presidential election won by Donald Trump:

My first racist encounter after our new joke of a president, as I am at Wallmart [sic] today a woman came up to me and pulled my Hijab of and said "this is not allowed anymore, so go hang yourself with it around your neck not on your head" I am traumtized. [sic]

He post was soon shared thousands of times and was also posted on Walmart's Facebook timeline.

The company has not responded to that post, but a company spokesperson told snopes.com on 10 November 2016 that they was trying to establish contact with Gawad to obtain more information about the alleged incident. Walmart also sent snopes.com the following statement on 11 November 2016:

We take what has been alleged seriously We attempted to look into this matter but have been unable to verify that the claim posted to Facebook by a customer actually took place, and the page has been removed.

Gawad has not responded to our request for an interview. Police in her community (which we will not reveal to protect her safety) said they had not been contacted regarding such an encounter.

Gawad's post is one of several stories of anti-Islam (and other) harassment that have circulated online since Donald Trump was elected president. Another Muslim woman described a similar incident in New Mexico on Twitter, in a post that has been shared more than 17,000 times.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading American Muslim advocacy group, has already called on Trump to "repudiate" such attacks. The group's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, told us:

We're hoping that perhaps Donald Trump as president will be different than he was while campainging for the presidency. We'll just have to see. We're just gonna maintain our defense of civil rights and religious freedom and any time those rights are challenged, we're gonna speak up and take legal action.

Hooper did note that one woman recanted her initial account of an attack at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. But even that case, he said, could be connected to an increase in phone calls CAIR has received from Muslim Americans facing mental health issues:

I think it is symptomatic of the real anxiety and stress in the American Muslim community. It kind of brings this issues to the surface

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