The NYPD has launched a hate crime investigation against Stuart Seldowitz, the former Obama administration adviser who was this week filmed lobbing heinous abuse at a NYC street cart vendor.
Seldowitz, 64, routinely visited the street cart on 83rd Street and 2nd Avenue, a block from his Upper East Side home, according to an association of street vendors.
In three separate videos shared on Twitter, he was filmed threatening the unidentified vendor, asking him if he was a ‘rapist like Muhammad’, telling him to ‘learn English so you don’t have to work in a cart’ and labeling him a ‘terrorist’.
In one, he threatened the man: ‘I’ll send your picture to my friends in immigration.
‘The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? He’ll take them out one by one,’ he said.
In one of his most abhorrent remarks, he said: ‘If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough.’
NYC City Council Member Julie Menin – the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor – announced that he was being investigated by the 19th Precinct
Gotham Government Relations, a New York-based firm, ‘ended all affiliation’ with Stuart Seldowitz, 64, over the videos. He was filmed harassing the vendor on three separate occasions
Barack Obama ‘s former director of the National Security Council says ‘it’s probably me’ seen unleashing an Islamophobic attack on a street vendor but says ‘I don’t think I’m an Islamaphobic guy’
Seldowitz last night apologized, telling City and State that he regretted the incident and ‘shouldn’t have raised the religious aspect’.
NYC City Council Member Julie Menin – the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor – announced that he was being investigated by the 19th Precinct.
It’s unclear exactly the scope in which Seldowitz served during the Obama administration.
His professional biographies have now been scrubbed from the internet, as have his children’s.
One that was online on the website for Gotham Government Relations described him as a former delegate and Middle Eastern adviser to President Obama.
Gotham has now cut all ties with Seldowitz and is offering the vendor free help to launch a lawsuit against him.
‘Gotham Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz.
The original video, lasting over two minutes, shows Seldowitz speaking to a halal cart vendor, using slurs for Egyptians and then saying intelligence agents in Egypt ‘will get your parents’
Left-wing journalist Matt Binder claimed that Seldowitz has served as an agent for the State Department under five different presidents
‘The video of his actions is vile, racist and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm,’ the firm said.
Representatives from the Obama administration are yet to comment.
In the videos, Seldowitz ignores the man’s pleas to leave and instead stands in front of him, telling him he has a ‘right’ to be there because he’s American.
‘Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad? You don’t speak English? That just shows how ignorant you are. Muhammad was a rapist. Muhammad your prophet. You know who he is. He raped Aisha,’ he says in one video, referring to an early version of the Sunni Hadith that says the Prophet Muhammad married Aisha when she was six and the pair ‘consummated’ the marriage when she was nine.
That age range is hotly contested in the Arab world, where many say the early interpretation of age cannot be applied to today’s world. The issue sparked protests around the Arab world last year after an Indian politician called the Prophet Muhammad a pedophile on television.
The street vendor ignored Seldowitz’s comments, saying instead that he didn’t speak English.
‘You don’t speak English? That’s why you’re selling food in a food cart. That’s why you should learn English – it’ll help you,’ he said.
‘When they deport you back to Egypt and the Mukhabarat wants to interview you…’ he goes in.
The vendor maintained his composure in all of the videos shared online.
‘Do you want to buy something? I am working now,’ he says.
Seldowitz refused to leave, and said: ‘No I don’t.
‘I’m going to put a big sign here saying “this guy believes in Hamas.” I won’t give you a penny of my money.
‘I don’t want to go. I have a right to stand on the sidewalk. You have no right to be here. You have a permit?’
When the vendor replied that he indeed had a permit and a license, Seldowitz said: ‘But you don’t have a visa?’
He shot back: ‘It’s none of your business.’
Seldowitz retorted: ‘Actually it is my business, I know the guy who does all of these.’
In another, he says: ‘You’re a terrorist. You support terrorism.’
It’s unclear how their interactions began, or why he is so convinced of the vendor’s affiliation with Hamas.
Last night, after videos of their interactions went viral, a sign was placed on the cart that reads: ‘The Upper East Side Stands with You.’