President Obama’s former National Security Council chief has apologised after being videoed asking a Muslim street cart vendor if he rapes his own daughter.
But Stuart Seldowitz, 64, claimed he wasn’t an ‘Islamophobic guy’ after a number of videos surfaced of him harassing the halal vendor in New York.
SHOCKING! Former Obama adviser Stuart Seldowitz making Islamophobic remarks to a street vendor:
— Jane Adams (@iLoveJaneAdams) November 22, 2023
“DID YOU R*PE YOUR DAUGHTER LIKE MOHAMMAD” pic.twitter.com/EBamLrwC5v
Seldowitz worked as a deputy director in the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs in the early 2000s.
‘Did you rape your daughter like Mohammed did?’ Seldowitz asks the vendor in one video.
In another, he threatens to send a photo of the vendor to his ‘friends in Immigration’ and to Egypt’s security services, who would torture him ‘when they deport you back to Egypt’.
Mr Seldowitz says he is going to "put up big signs here that say 'This guy believes in Hamas'"
The vendor then says he is an American citizen, but Seldowitz calls him a "terrorist."
"You support killing young children," Seldowitz says.
"You kill children, not me. Go," the vendor replies.
Seldowitz then says ‘If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough’.
Addressing the videos, Seldowitz admitted ‘it’s probably me’.
‘If I had to do it all over again, I would not have raised the religious aspect.
I don’t think I’m an Islamophobic guy. I’ve spoken up for equal treatment of Muslims on numerous occasions with numerous different people.
"But you know, in the heat of the moment, I said things that probably I shouldn’t have said."
