Muslim Family Attacked At Brooklyn TJ Maxx: Video

BAY RIDGE, BROOKLYN — A woman screamed "Go back to your country" at a woman in a hijab buying winter clothes for her twins at a Brooklyn T.J. Maxx as store employees watched, according to her husband and officials. She was later caught on video hitting the husband and promising, "I'm going to f--- you up."

Police then refused the man's request to investigate the encounter as a hate crime, he said.

Mido Mourad, 41, told police he and his wife were attacked inside the T.J. Maxx on 86th Street and Fifth Avenue about 1 p.m. Saturday, the NYPD confirmed.

The fight began near the check-out counter where the woman began cursing at Mourad and his wife, who wears a hijab, he later wrote on Facebook.

"This lady became more and more aggressive and we started to worry that she was going to harm us," Mourad wrote. "As we started to walk away, she yelled at us to 'GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY!' We were shocked and shaken."

Mourad said store workers ignored them and a T.J. Maxx manager refused to help, so he pulled out his phone outside the store, called police and started recording.

"Stop taking pictures," the woman tells him as her hand flies toward him. "Get out of my face or I'm going to f--- you up."

"OK," he replies.

Mourad asked police to file hate crime charges against the woman, but officers who arrived at the store said the woman's behavior didn't constitute a hate crime, but only a harassment violation, Mourad wrote. Police confirmed the incident has been filed as a harassment complaint.

The woman's actions, and the response from store workers and police, left Mourad and his wife deeply shaken, he wrote.

"Instead of showering my children with gifts this weekend, we were traumatized and made to feel like we don’t belong," Mourad wrote.

"I still cannot believe that TJ Maxx prioritized helping this racist over us. We hope the NYPD will take this assault seriously and investigate it as a hate crime."

T.J. Maxx will conduct an internal investigation and cooperate with the NYPD, a spokesperson told Patch.

“We are committed to fostering an environment in our stores in which everyone is treated with dignity and respect," the spokesperson wrote in an email. "We are sorry to learn that this situation occurred between two customers and are looking into this matter further."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling on the NYPD to investigate the incident as a hate crime and for T.J. Maxx to train employees to respond to harassment.

“It is unacceptable that T.J. Maxx would value the business of a bigot over protecting their Muslim customers from repugnant harassment,” CAIR-NY Litigation Director Ahmed Mohamed said.

“New Yorkers of all faiths and backgrounds deserve to have a shopping experience that is free of harassment and discrimination.”

This story was updated at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 21 to include a comment from a T.J. Maxx representative.