DENVER — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is reacting to a viral video shot on the campus of Metropolitan State University of Denver.
The video was shot moments after Muslim students said they were verbally attacked for praying in public. The video was posted on Twitter Monday and had nearly 13,000 retweets as of Thursday night.
The university says it is investigating what is being described as a hate incident.
Cellphone video shows a tense exchange in a computer lab. A woman, identified as a student, flips her middle fingers and uses the F-word multiple times.
“F*** you, f*** you and all your family too,” the woman could be heard saying on video.
On Twitter, the young woman is accused of saying to Muslim students — before being recorded — “F*** your religion … F*** you … I don’t care about your prayers.”
“As many of these hate incidents as I’ve seen online, I still manage to become shocked when I see one,” said CAIR Colorado acting board chair Krista Cole.
Cole says she thinks the female student didn’t understand why the men in the video were praying in the computer lab at that particular time.
“The five obligatory prayers have a timetable,” she said. “For whatever reason, these [men] didn’t feel like they could make it across campus or they didn’t feel like they could make it to a prayer room or a mosque.”
Cole supports MSU Denver’s decision to investigate and says she expects a decision that leads to discipline that would result in bringing the student to an understanding of what she did wrong and how to correct it moving forward.
“We are still investigating the incident that occurred earlier this week,” wrote MSU Denver spokesperson Tim Carroll in an emailed statement. “MSU Denver takes its commitment to diversity very seriously and places a high value on cultivating and sustaining a respectful and inclusive campus community. We will keep you informed of the outcome of our investigation when it’s completed.”
FOX31 was unable to verify the identity of the woman in the video. Any defense on her part has not been made publicly available.