A Florida woman who went on an anti-Muslim rant in a disturbing viral video said that she regrets her words and that she had been provoked when she was told to wear a mask.
"I don't like what I saw, but I'm human," the woman, Luba Bozanich, a licensed clinical social worker, said to Miami's WPLG-TV about the incident. "When this guy said what he said to me, I said what I said to him and I got angry. I felt very angry, and I told him off."
Bozanich, a white woman, yelled Islamophobic, racist and hateful comments at fellow customers in a Fort Lauderdale Walgreens earlier this month in a video captured on a police body camera, 911 calls and a cellphone video. Bozanich has a medical condition that hinders her ability to wear a mask, according to WPLG, and responded with extreme anger when she was told to put on a mask by a cashier.
Nahla Ebaid, one of the customers on the receiving end of Bozanich's tirade, said after the cashier made the request to Bozanich, "she looked at us and she said, 'I wish I am from your country so I don't have to wear the mask.'"
Ebaid added, "So we said, 'Which country is that? We're from New York.'"
Ebaid told WPLG that's when Bozanich snapped, directing obscenities and racial slurs, including the n-word, at Ebaid and her husband. The Egyptian-American woman, who wears a hijab, began recording the rant after Bozanich spit on Ebaid's husband.
A number of video clips of the incident surfaced across social media. In one clip, Bozanich refers to the Ebaids as "f***ing Muslims" and tells them to "kiss my a**" before mocking Ebaid's clothing.
“No they're not humans, they are Muslims”. A Muslim woman was targeted with a racial tirade while she was shopping with her husband in a grocery store in Florida. Nahla Ebaid, an Egyptian American, recorded the incident after the attacker began hurling racial slurs at her. pic.twitter.com/PnxB3O9bSI
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) April 9, 2021
"Oh, I love your garb," Bozanich tells Ebaid sarcastically before ordering her to "pull that up, honey." Later, she calls Ebaid an "ugly b***h" repeatedly and asks her, "Why do you wear clothes like that?"
Bozanich went on to call the police on the Ebaids, referring to the husband and wife as "Muslims" who had threatened her with verbal and physical violence.
"God, you're ugly," Bozanich says. "No wonder people hate you. Israelis rule."
Police later arrived and detained Bozanich, who cried, pleaded to officers to "please don't do this to me...I didn't do anything" and said she has friends who are Muslim. The Ebaids decided not to press charges, MPLG reported, and as of Monday Bozanich is still seeing clients in her role as a social worker.
Bozanich's words were "very disgusting," Ebaid told the TV station, adding, "I still hear her words in my ears."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
