US: Hijab-clad Muslim cop called 'ISIS', harassed in New York

New York: In an alleged incidence of hate crime, an off-duty hijab-clad Muslim police officer was harassed, called "ISIS" and was told to go back to her country by a white man who also pushed her 16-year-old son, the latest in a series of incidents in which head-scarf-wearing women have been targeted in the US following Donald Trump's win.

Officer Aml Elsokary was off duty and wearing hijab, dropped off her son in Brooklyn.

she had returned to the scene to find her son being pushed by the suspect, a white man in his 30s.

When the officer, a native New Yorker, approached the man said, "ISIS (expletive), I will cut your throat, go back to your country!"

Elsokary did not reveal her identity as a police officer, and was unarmed, the New York Daily News reported, citing police sources.

The suspect then fled the scene.

Police confirmed that they were investigating and trying to track him down.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is probing the episode as a partial incident which took place on Saturday.

Officer Elsokary, who proudly wears her hijab on duty was touted as a hero by the New York city mayor after she ran into a burning building to save an elderly man and baby girl in April 2014.

Responding to a call about a fire over the police radio, Elsokary and her partner had rushed to a smoke-filled building.

She had joined the NYPD force shortly after the September 11 terror attacks to "show people that the terrible acts of that day contradicted the teachings of Islam," Mayor de Blasio had said at a 2014 dinner.

The mother-of-five had received a medal for her bravery.

The incident on Saturday comes amid a murder of intimidation and assault cases that have been reported across the country against hijab-clad women following Trump's win.

On Thursday, a Muslim student was allegedly assaulted aboard a subway train by three drunk white men who repeatedly screamed "Donald Trump!" and hurled anti-Islam slogans before trying to rip her hijab off.

Earlier this month, a Hijab-clad Muslim student was allegedly trashed in the face with a glass bottle in broad daylight at the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

In another incident, a hijab-clad woman was allegedly accosted at a US store by another customer who called her a "terrorist" and told her to "get out" of the country.

Also, a Muslim student's hijab was allegedly ripped off and her hair pulled down by a classmate at a school in Minnesota.

(with agency inputs)