Muslim auto technician claims his work clothes were stuffed with bacon by former boss
UNION, New Jersey (WABC) -- An auto technician in New Jersey is speaking out after he claims that he was the repeated victim of anti-Muslim bias incidents enacted by his boss.
"The car engine will blow up or have issues and he would go and say 'oh you blew it up, you Arabs always like to blow things up,'" said alleged hate crime victim Nimer Musa. "In the past he had joked about feeding me bacon bites."
Nimer Musa said these were just a few examples of the repeated behavior of hate allegedly spewed by his former manager at work.
In an Eyewitness News exclusive interview, the auto technician at a Subaru service center in Union, New Jersey said that was just the beginning.
He said a day after he filed a complaint with human resources, his manager was terminated.
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However, the manager allegedly returned to the workplace last month, a few days after being fired, to collect his personal belongings.
That's when Musa said he found bacon stuffed in his work shirt pockets, his pants and his boots.
"Bacon fell out of my work shirt," he said.
Musa is Muslim, and they are prohibited from consuming pork.
"After that bacon I haven't been the same to be honest," Musa said. "I haven't been sleeping well. I've been throwing up. Just cause unfortunately, I had to touch it. At first, I didn't know what it was. I digged in my pockets and oil everywhere."
The Union Police Department is investigating this as a bias incident.
The Council on American Islamic Relations released a statement:
"This alleged bias harassment and intimidation is reprehensible and should never be tolerated. We applaud Subaru for taking action against the bigoted employee. We thank the Union Police Department for launching an investigation."
Musa was born and raised in this country. He first faced hate when he was only about 5 years old. He remembers it as if it was yesterday.
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"Right after 9/11 my father had a customer that came, he works at a rental car company, he came to pick up his rental," he said. "My father is nothing but nice, polite, he tried to help the customer. The customer told him go back to your country."
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