Arrest warrant is issued for Portland, Oregon woman, Jasmine Renee Campbell after choking Muslim woman w/ her hijab and defiling her headscarf.
An arrest warrant has been issued for an Oregon woman accused of committing a hate crime against a Muslim student after she failed to appear in court Friday.
Jasmine Renee Campbell, 23, never appeared for her scheduled arraignment Friday, following her indictment on charges of a hate crime, attempted strangulation, harassment, and criminal mischief, AP News reports.
According to court documents, the accused Islamophobic is alleged to have grabbed the hijab of a 24-year-old Saudi Arabian foreign exchange student from behind and trying to choke her with the headscarf, which Campbell then allegedly ripped off the woman at downtown Portland’s MAX train station in November, KPTV/Fox 12 reported.
Court documents described Campbell proceeding to strip naked, save for a leather jacket, and then rubbed the hijab over her breasts and genitals while denigrated Muslims.
Read the documents in part: ‘She [Campbell] was fighting and playing around, [saying] that she wanted to be a stripper, that she wanted to show the victim that she did not have to be a Muslim, that people don’t have to be black or white, and she wanted the victim to know that religion doesn’t define her.’
Rising incidence of bias crime and harassment towards individuals of faith and minorities and immigrants?
Following her arrest that evening, Campbell was reportedly indicted some weeks later by a grand jury on December 18 on two counts of second-degree bias crime, attempted strangulation, harassment, and third-degree criminal mischief.
According to authorities, Campbell and the alleged victim didn’t know one another, with the unnamed woman saying she no longer feels safe wearing a hijab in public. The victim also said she did not want to get back the hijab Campbell allegedly defiled.
Responding to the charges against her, Campbell told Fox 12 on Friday that she didn’t intend to hurt anyone, but had too much to drink that night.
She also attributed the attack to a mental health condition and said she missed court due to treatment for said condition.
The attack has heightened concerns amongst Muslim women who wear the hijab, pointing to an air of hostility towards immigrants and their faith in the United States.
