Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, shown on video assaulting Shohel Mahmud after he began reciting prayer in Arabic

A New York woman who pepper-sprayed a Muslim Uber driver while he was praying has been indicted by the Manhattan district attorney on hate crime charges.

Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, is shown in a surveillance video repeatedly pepper-spraying her Uber driver, Shohel Mahmud. The assault took place in August on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, near the corner of east 65th Street and Lexington Avenue, shortly after Mahmud began reciting a prayer in Arabic.

Guilbeault’s former employer, the public relations and marketing firm D Pagan Communications, wrote on X it is aware of her actions and “don’t condone this behavior”.

  • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Wait… your description doesn’t include any praying either. Did he pray or not? It just looks like an attack.

    It would make me uncomfortable if someone just started audibly praying while driving me though. Given the tone I might even take it as a threat on my life, if I felt like it was some “last rights” or “give me strength” shit that made me feel like they were about to off themselves with me in the car.

    The solution would absolutely not be to pepper spray the driver though. That can only make my fears a reality.

    • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Given the tone I might even take it as a threat on my life

      That is an unhinged and deranged level of xenophobia.

      • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Explain. There is no xenophobia in my comment. Which “other” am I referring to? Lemmy trolls pearl clutching again. Get real.

        • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          Making shit up online is fun. Strawman arguments don’t convince anyone of anything though just makes you look like a tool.

          Islam is the 2nd largest religion on Earth. It’s not some piddly minority. When people are being weird Muslims it’s okay to call them out the same way there are hella weird Christians and Jews. I would say NOT doing so and handling a particular groups weirdos with kids gloves is just as xenophobic (but obviously not as harmful) as attacking someone for being different.

          You’re basically saying they are less human than you and therefor should be excused from behaving normally in the society they are a part of, like they were a small child.

          • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            with kids gloves

            *kid gloves

            They’re called kid gloves because they’re made from baby goat.

            The leather from baby goats is soft and supple and gives you more dexterity than normal leather gloves. If you were handling something that needed great care, you might want to wear kid gloves to have greater manual control.

            Why would you handle someone with kids’ gloves? Are your hands very tiny?

            You’re basically saying they are less human than you and therefor should be excused from behaving normally in the society they are a part of

            There’s nothing abnormal about speaking a foreign language or praying. For all you know, he could have been praying for a safe journey.

            (Or praying for the endurance to put up with a shitty passenger.)

            • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              Read my responses for the answer, pedant.

              There is something abnormal about praying in a workplace. They shouldn’t be attacked, but it’s also not normal. I don’t care what religion they’re a part of, it would be strange regardless.

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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      19 hours ago

      He apprently was praying when she attacked him. Being Muslim, he needs to pray several times a day to stay devout. It’s likely he was reciting one of those prayers.

      It looks clear that he was speaking in Arabic and she took that to mean that he should be viciously attacked. It’s unlikely she knew it was a prayer, so your religious fears above likely dont apply.

      • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        Hmm bad Muslim then, as I’m lead to believe from all the Muslims friends I have. You specifically don’t need to pray while traveling. Actively driving would obviously qualify.

        • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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          18 hours ago

          I’m not going to speak to whether he was required to pray in that instance or not, but the fact remains she heard Arabic from a Muslim man and attacked him.

          I assume him being a “bad Muslim” in your eyes doesn’t excuse the attack, right?

          • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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            16 hours ago

            I already said it was wrong. Just because someone is a victim doesn’t make their behavior also not wrong though. There’s a time and a place for religious behavior.

            • wildcardology@lemmy.world
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              13 hours ago

              So according to you praying randomly is bad religious behavior? Maybe he’s going through something and a silent prayer gives him relief.

              • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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                12 hours ago

                If it were silent prayer they wouldn’t have known he was doing it unless his hands were off the wheel while driving, which would be concerning in its own right.

                Randomly praying in private is fine. Praying on the job in the middle of the task you are paid for is fucking weird and bad. It’s an Uber driver. Fares are very rarely over 30 minutes and probably more commonly less. Pray in between. There is no doctrine mandating it at such an interval that it would interfere with this work in a way that would require special allowances. IN FACT, there are special allowances within the religion that permit not adhering to the 5 prayer routine during acts of travel or when it could be deemed unsafe, all of which would apply to the act of driving.

                • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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                  7 hours ago

                  But why? What if this dude feels personally called to speak with god for several hours a day? I’d consider Uber a fairly adaptable job that works for that.

                  There’s a difference between weird and bad. Is it weird to pray aloud in front of others? A little, I guess, but that’s not a reason that he shouldn’t do it and it doesn’t make it bad.

                  • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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                    2 hours ago

                    If that’s their compulsion they can do it while not actively working. In between pickups etc. I personally find it obnoxiously pious to make others unwilling participants in your praying. A person’s driver is in too intimate a setting to be doing stuff like that.

                    I wouldn’t give a shit if they were a bus driver though because that’s already a more public environment where I’m not expecting the driver to be talking to me if they are talking. (I also find it annoying when the driver is on the phone in an Uber for similar reasons). If they were being annoying I have the ability to move myself a little further out of earshot. In a private car, the only way to avoid it is to end the ride and find a new one, which would be incredibly inconvenient.

            • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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              15 hours ago

              Per the first amendment, that time and place are whenever and wherever you want. I’d assume that applies to inside of your own damn car.

              • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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                12 hours ago

                Not when your car is your workplace. We’ve seen what happens when people are allowed to practice their religion however they please. Being 2 feet away from someone in a moving vehicle that you’ve paid for transportation in is not appropriate. We’ve learned the 1st amendment doesn’t permit you to practice your religion under whatever circumstances you wish. ALSO the law should never be used as a barometer for right and wrong. We often hope it aligns but far too often we see it does not.