“Comments made to the student indicate she was targeted because of her Muslim faith, including her wearing of a traditional garment and hijab,” police said in a statement. The SDSU Muslim Student Association said the victim was a black Muslim student wearing full Islamic dress, and is planning a demonstration against “anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, and all other forms of discrimination that have become increasingly normalised during the campaign and now election of Donald Trump”. Several Muslim women have reported Trump supporters attempting to rip off their hijabs, which cover the hair, while others said their families have advised them to stop wearing headscarves in fear of further attacks.
Maha Abdul Gawad said she was shopping in a local Wallmart on Wednesday when another woman approached, pulled off her hijab and said: “This is not allowed anymore, so go hang yourself with it around your neck not on your head.”
Numerous incidents were also reported in schools, with students saying Muslim girls had taken off their hijabs to avoid abuse or had them forcibly removed, and teachers describing comforting crying children afraid their families would be deported.
Mackenzie Rae, from Washington, shared a message she received from a friend who works at a high school in Kansas on Wednesday.
It said: “We have two kids wearing Trump shirts pull a hijab off a Muslim girl today at school. OSS [out-of-school suspension] for five days.