A Muslim woman from Magaliesburg has said she was kicked in the ribs, called “Osama’s bitchâ€, and chased with a brick in an apparent Islamophobic attack on Sunday.
Zulekha Bibi Mustapha, 45, says she was leaving the local KFC when two white Afrikaner men approached her.
“They pulled off my headscarf and called me Osama’s bitch before chasing me with a brick,†Khan said.
“They also said I must go back to Saudi Arabia before leaving me with 13 stitches on my forehead,†Khan said.
The incident came moments after Khan said she admired Osama bin Laden during a conversation with two strangers at the KFC.
“Here I was eating my Streetwise II and they became visibly appalled when I mentioned Osama had also eaten KFC with his hands,†Mustapha said.
The story was picked up by a range of media houses across the country.
But a prominent media watchdog said they were terribly disappointed that the media had rushed to label the incident as a right-wing Islamophobic attack “without verifying the factsâ€.
“There were no witnesses, and it’s not fair to stereotype the Afrikaner community because of the testimony of one person,†the Muslim Review Network (MRN) said.
The MRN said there is no way it could be verified that the attackers were Afrikaners, white, or even human.
The Muslim watchdog said it was important the media did their homework before publishing stories “as factâ€.
“It seems rather odd that Ms Mustapha would choose to bring up Osama bin Laden during her lunch hour,†the watchdog said.
“The KFC in the town is not even halal, so one has to wonder what Mustapha was doing there in the first place,†MRN said.
Abu O’Well is an almost an award-winning satirist with The Daily Vox. Read more of his writing or stalk him on Facebook.
