Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, shown on video assaulting Shohel Mahmud after he began reciting prayer in Arabic

A New York woman who pepper-sprayed a Muslim Uber driver while he was praying has been indicted by the Manhattan district attorney on hate crime charges.

Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, is shown in a surveillance video repeatedly pepper-spraying her Uber driver, Shohel Mahmud. The assault took place in August on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, near the corner of east 65th Street and Lexington Avenue, shortly after Mahmud began reciting a prayer in Arabic.

Guilbeault’s former employer, the public relations and marketing firm D Pagan Communications, wrote on X it is aware of her actions and “don’t condone this behavior”.

  • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Given the tone I might even take it as a threat on my life

    That is an unhinged and deranged level of xenophobia.

      • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Making shit up online is fun. Strawman arguments don’t convince anyone of anything though just makes you look like a tool.

        Islam is the 2nd largest religion on Earth. It’s not some piddly minority. When people are being weird Muslims it’s okay to call them out the same way there are hella weird Christians and Jews. I would say NOT doing so and handling a particular groups weirdos with kids gloves is just as xenophobic (but obviously not as harmful) as attacking someone for being different.

        You’re basically saying they are less human than you and therefor should be excused from behaving normally in the society they are a part of, like they were a small child.

        • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          with kids gloves

          *kid gloves

          They’re called kid gloves because they’re made from baby goat.

          The leather from baby goats is soft and supple and gives you more dexterity than normal leather gloves. If you were handling something that needed great care, you might want to wear kid gloves to have greater manual control.

          Why would you handle someone with kids’ gloves? Are your hands very tiny?

          You’re basically saying they are less human than you and therefor should be excused from behaving normally in the society they are a part of

          There’s nothing abnormal about speaking a foreign language or praying. For all you know, he could have been praying for a safe journey.

          (Or praying for the endurance to put up with a shitty passenger.)

          • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            Read my responses for the answer, pedant.

            There is something abnormal about praying in a workplace. They shouldn’t be attacked, but it’s also not normal. I don’t care what religion they’re a part of, it would be strange regardless.

            • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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              4 days ago

              How other people pray is none of your business. You don’t get to decide what is “normal”. If other peoples’ prayers upset you, then you can die mad for all I care.

              • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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                4 days ago

                I don’t have to decide what is normal. I can experience what is normal. I don’t get mad when people pray, I just don’t like it done in front of me while I am trapped in a small space with them.

                • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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                  3 days ago

                  I don’t get mad when people pray, I just don’t like it done in front of me while I am trapped in a small space with them.

                  So what you’re saying is that you get mad when people pray.

                  • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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                    3 days ago

                    No… I get annoyed when people put me in position where I have no reason to expect them to start praying, and the only method of distancing myself from that act would be extraordinary inconvenient for me.

                    Pray 20 hours a day for all I care, to whatever God you want. Leave me out of it.

              • nomous@lemmy.world
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                4 days ago

                How other people pray is none of your business

                Unless I’m paying them to take me somewhere, then it’s definitely my business why they aren’t doing that.

                Shit is rarely just black and white as much as we’d all like that to be the case.

                • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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                  3 days ago

                  What an absolutely awful person you are…

                  If other people’s cultures and religions offend you, stay inside and remain alone, for all of our sakes.

    • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Explain. There is no xenophobia in my comment. Which “other” am I referring to? Lemmy trolls pearl clutching again. Get real.

        • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Ain’t got a problem with Muslims. Got a problem with audibly praying while you’re driving me. Just like I’d have a problem with you having an intimate personal phone call with me in the car.

            • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              Hey squid, I know you can read. What the fuck is your problem? You get off on making shit up like the rest of these bums now too? I’ve already said there’s no excuse for pepper spray of violence MANY times in this thread. People just keep trying to imply there’s some bullshit xenophobic message behind me expressing I don’t want people praying around me.

              Fuck, you’re such a disappointment. I thought you were better than that.

              • Zess@lemmy.world
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                4 days ago

                I’m sure they’re real torn up that some dumbass on the Internet is disappointed in them 🤣

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  3 days ago

                  I mean, I don’t think they’re ‘some dumbass,’ I don’t know them well enough, but I’m not especially torn up.

                • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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                  4 days ago

                  Some of us actually engage with each other rather frequently because of how small the active user base really is.

      • Baaahb@feddit.nl
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        4 days ago

        Assuming something malicious is happening because a language is used when its not yours sounds exactly like xenophobia

        • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Didn’t express a muslim prayer in my response. Actually referenced common Christian phrases. The xenophobia is all in your mind.