Source: The Washington Post
By Derek Hawkins and Fred Barbash
A student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette fabricated a story that she was attacked and had her hijab rippped off, police said Thursday.
The attack was one of several reported in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory.
In a press release Thursday afternoon, the Lafayette Police Department said that during the course of their investigation into the woman’s complaint, she “admitted that she fabricated the story about her physical attack as well as the removal of her hijab and wallet by two white males.
“This incident is no longer under investigation” by the department, the statement said.
The original version of this story below has been updated to reflect the latest police statement.
A Muslim student at San Diego State University was robbed and may have had her car stolen Wednesday by two men who made comments about President-elect Donald Trump and Muslims, according to police and university officials, who called the attack a hate crime.
In a separate incident Wednesday, a female student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette claimed to have been beaten, robbed and had her hijab ripped off by two men, one of them wearing a white “Trump” hat, police and university officials said.
But on Thursday, Lafayette police said that during their investigation, the woman admitted fabricating that story.
The SDSU student was walking to her car about 2:30 p.m. when two men accosted her in the stairwell of a campus parking building and “made comments about President-elect Donald Trump and the Muslim community,” campus police said in a statement. The men grabbed the woman’s purse and backpack, and removed her car keys before fleeing, police said.
The woman, who was not injured, left the area to report the attack, police said. When authorities arrived on the scene, they said, her car was missing.
Police described the suspects as a white male between 20 and 25 years old and a Hispanic male about the same age. Investigators are treating the incident as a hate crime, robbery and vehicle theft.
The SDSU Muslim Student Association said the victim was a Muslim student wearing a hijab and “full Islamic garb.” The group is planning a demonstration next week to protest Trump’s victory, saying his campaign has encouraged discrimination against blacks and Muslims.
“We are calling on all students, faculty, staff, and community members to come and show solidarity with our sister that was attacked and also stand against anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, and all other forms of discrimination that have become increasingly normalized during the campaign and now election of Donald Trump,” the group said on Facebook. “It is time we make it clear that the hate and racism of Donald Trump will not find a home in San Diego.”
University President Elliot Hirshman said in a statement that the victim appeared to have been targeted because of her Muslim faith.
Categories: America, Hijab, Islamophobia, The Muslim Times, USA