She gave the First Lady a fencing lesson, just two weeks after being asked in the street if she was going to blow something up.

Now Ibtihaj Muhammad is preparing for the “defining moment” in her life – becoming Team USA’s first hijab-wearing Olympian.

“In this particular political climate in the history of this country, it is groundbreaking to have a Muslim woman on the US team,” Muhammad tells BBC Sport.

“I am excited to challenge the stereotypes and misconceptions people have about Muslim women. I want to show people that we can not only be on any Olympic team, but on the US Olympic team which is the strongest of the world’s teams.”

Many feel politics and sport is a murky combination and should never mix, but Muhammad is more than happy to give her views on both subjects.

“As a global community, we have to work harder to change our current situation. It is an unhealthy one,” she says.

There were a spate of attacks in the US and Europe last month with eight American police officers shot dead in two separate incidents in revenge attacks for the killing of young black men by police.

In France, 84 people were killed when a lorry ploughed into a large crowd in Nice on Bastille Day, while a priest was killed after two armed men stormed his church in a suburb of Rouen. Responsibility for both attacks was claimed by so-called Islamic State.

In Germany, 10 people died and dozens injured in separate gun, bomb, axe and machete attacks.

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