Woman mistaken for terrorist sues police

A Muslim woman is suing Chicago police who mistakenly identified her as a potential ‘lone wolf’ terrorist as she was leaving a city subway station last year on July 4 wearing a headscarf, face veil, and carrying a backpack.

Itemid Al-Matar says officers violated her civil rights by pulling off her religious garb as they arrested her on subway station stairs, then strip-searched her later at a police station, according to the federal lawsuit filed in Chicago on her behalf.

“Several [officers] ran up the stairs and grabbed the plaintiff and threw her down upon the stair landing, then pulling at her and ripping off her hijab,” says the lawsuit.

Security footage shows several officers pushing through a crowd on a stairway to reach Ms Al-Matar.

The fact that Ms Al-Matar was wearing a headscarf, known as a hijab, and the face veil, called a niqab, “was the impetus behind the actions” of the officers, the court filing alleges.

In a statement, Phil Robertson, a lawyer for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and a co-counsel in the civil case, argued “blatant xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racial profiling” underpinned the officers’ actions.

A police report filed the night of the incident says officers had been “on high alert of terrorist activity” on the July 4 holiday when they saw Ms Al-Matar exhibiting what they believed was “suspicious behaviour,” including walking at “a brisk pace, in a determined manner.”

It also says officers saw what they thought could be “incendiary devices” around her ankles and were also suspicious of her backpack, which was clutched to her chest. “[Officers] believed that subject might be a lone wolf suicide bomber and decided to attempt to take subject into custody,” it says.