Title is a tad bit misleading, I highly doubt I'll be posting daily in this. Nonetheless, I decided to stop filling my other books with news articles and such so I've created this one. In this book I'll be sharing articles, stories, and sometimes pi...
A 23-year-old Oregon woman has been charged with hate crimes for allegedly grabbing the hijab off a 24-year-old foreign exchange student from Saudi Arabia, then stripping off her own clothes and rubbing the hijab against her breasts and crotch at a downtown Portland MAX station.
Jasmine Renee Campbell didn’t know the victim, who is Muslim and attends Portland State University, authorities said.
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Jasmine Renee Campbell, 23, is accused of grabbing a hijab off of a Muslim woman and desecrating it. (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)
A probable cause affidavit filed by the prosecution says Campbell told police that she targeted the student because she wanted to let the woman know that her religion shouldn’t define her.
Campbell approached the student from behind about 7:20 p.m. on Nov. 12, took hold of the hijab and tried to choke the student, the affidavit states.
The student was able to push Campbell away, and Campbell responded by taking off all her clothes except for a leather jacket and rubbing the religious covering against her breasts and running it between her legs and against her genitals, according to the affidavit.
Campbell mocked and made fun of Muslims, the affidavit says.
Witnesses called police.
The victim told investigators that she no longer wears a hijab because she doesn’t feel safe letting the public know of her religion. She instead wears a knit cap and a scarf to cover her head, according to the affidavit.
The student was attacked as she waited at the MAX train station near Southwest Ninth Avenue and Yamhill Street, the affidavit says. The station is within a block of Multnomah County’s Central Library in downtown Portland.
Campbell was indicted by a grand jury Dec. 18 on two counts of second-degree bias crime, attempted strangulation, harassment and third-degree criminal mischief.
She was scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court but failed to appear. A warrant has been issued for her arrest.
Court papers in recent months list Campbell as both homeless or living at an address in outer Southeast Portland.
Community members reacted with upset over the encounter.
“This is a really rough time for Muslim women,” said Zakir Khan, who is the Oregon board chairperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “We’re seeing other attacks against Muslim women who wear the hijab. They should be freely able to exercise their religion, just like anyone else.”
Khan said hostilities against some religious groups, not just Muslims, appears to be on the rise nationally.
“The rhetoric is not dying down,” Khan said. “What it’s doing is creating an environment that is empowering people to commit these crimes.”
