CAIR-Chicago Video: Muslim Woman Attacked in Response to Fort Hood Shootings

Tinley Park Police are investigating an alleged hate crime against a Muslim woman who says her headscarf was pulled by a supermarket shopper angry about the Fort Hood shootings.

Mother-of-four Amal Abusumayah, 28, says she was shopping at Jewel at 171st St. and Harlem Ave. at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday when a middle-aged woman passed her in the aisle and made a loud reference to Fort Hood.

"She said, 'The man that did that shooting in Texas was from the Middle East,' in a really loud and angry voice," Abusumayah said.

Minutes later, while Abusumayah was paying for her groceries, the woman approached her from behind and tugged hard on her blue and beige headscarf, she said.

"I turned around and looked at her and she walked out of the store," Abusumayah said.

"My scarf didn't come off because it was on very tight, but my head was tugged back," she said.

Following the woman into the lot, Abusumayah called police, who arrested the woman soon after, she said.

Abusumayah said she initially declined to press charges against the woman because she was "upset and confused," but that she returned to press charges on Sunday.

Tinley Park Police Chief Michael O' Connell said today his officers are investigating the incident as a "possible hate crime."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a press release Friday, calling for the FBI to also investigate.

"Pulling a woman's headscarf is clearly a hate crime and should therefore be investigated at such, CAIR's Chicago civil rights director Christina Abraham said in the release.

FBI spokesman Jon Diwik said the case has not been reported to the FBI. But O'Connell said there was no reason for that to happen because "it is our jurisdiction and we'll do a complete investigation."

Abusumayah, who was born in the U.S. and raised in Berwyn as the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, says she wants the woman she says attacked her charged soon because, "I was very offended and couldn't believe this was happening to me."

She said the Fort Hood murders were "very upsetting and very sad to me--as Muslims and Arabs we do not tolerate these kind of actions.

The Fort Hood murders were committed by "a person who was obviously sick," she said, "just like you see when there is a shooting at a high school or university.

"I had to report this incident because I don't want this to happen to anyone else."

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