A woman in New York has been arrested after allegedly assaulting two Muslim women with babies in a hate crime.
Police say Emirjeta Xhelili, 32, yelled racist slogans as she punched and kicked at the women and tried to rip their hijabs off. She's also said to have tried to push over one of the baby strollers the women were pushing, which carried a 15-month-old.
The attack took place in Brooklyn, near Xhelili's home, at 1:30pm on Thursday (local time).
Xhelili, who has posted online about her love of Donald Trump and hate of Muslims, allegedly yelled "Get the f**k out of America, b*tches!" before punching one of the women in the face.
The victims were not badly hurt and Xhelili was arrested around 30 minutes later, police say.
"She continued to taunt them in front of police while in custody, saying 'You guys don't belong here'," said Assistant District Attorney Kelli Muse.
"She didn't even care for the well-being of a baby - that's how serious this hate crime is."
Calling herself 'Mary Magdalene' on Facebook, Xhelili had been posting hateful messages less than an hour before the attacks took place.
One reads: "You can't live in America and be a Muslim! When you take the oath it says so help me God! It doesn't say help me Allah!"
In another post, she writes: "Can't hide I love Trump. When I had no hope and I thought everyone was bad, I looked at Trump goodness and speeches and I had hope."
She also claimed Allah was "kissing her ass" and that Martin Luther King Jr was a fraud because "you can't be a black Christian".
"America is the ark of Noah - Trump's gonna win," she writes.
Xhelili also appears to be an animal lover, posing in Facebook photos with a dolphin and cats.
She works at a kosher Italian restaurant and has been held on a US$50,000 bond on a charge of charged with misdemeanor assault as a hate crime.
In response to the attack, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic relations urged local mosques and Islamic institutions to increase security, saying the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks may be used as "an excuse to attack American Muslims".
Newshub.
