Giving the cold shoulder, giving the thumbs-up and rarely standing up to be counted to denounce Islamophobia were some of the various reactions of customers caught on hidden cameras by the ABC News primetime show "What Would You Do?" that aired on Feb 26.
In the segment, one actress posed as a hijab-clad Muslim customer and an actor as a salesman at a bakery in Texas.
Asking for an apple strudel, the woman was showered with anti-Muslim, anti-Arab slurs from the salesman to see what kind of reaction this would provoke among other customers.
"Get back on the camel and go back to wherever you came from," the salesman told the supposedly Muslim customer. "You got that towel on your head. I don’t know what’s underneath your dress. Just take your business and go elsewhere with it."
"Sir, I am an American, I was born and raised here," the actress told him.
Shockingly, the majority of the bystanders did or said absolutely nothing.
Desperate to have any support, the woman makes a direct appeal to one customer.
"Sir, would you mind ordering me an apple strudel? That’s why I am here."
Unmoved by the visibly shaken woman, the man simply completes his purchase and walks out of the bakery.
Others were even more blunt.
One man thanked the salesman and gave him the thumbs-up twice for his discriminatory, Islamophobic behavior.
"If I was running the place I’d do the same thing," said the man. "She wasn’t dressed right."
Appalled by the apparent discrimination, one man at last stood up for the victim, chastising the salesman and calling him a "bad American."
Outraged by the sales clerk’s hateful words, two women walked out of the bakery in protest but after giving the salesman a lesson in tolerance. "Sir, we are not buying our kolaches because you are really offensive and disgusting," one said.
"We thank ABC for tackling this sensitive subject in a manner that both demonstrates the existence of Islamophobic attitudes in our society and at the same time shows the kindness and sense of justice exhibited by ordinary Americans of all faiths," said Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Awad noted that CAIR assisted ABC during the research phase of the project. He also called on American Muslims and other people of conscience to contact the network to express their appreciation for the segment and to counterbalance the anti-Muslim bigots who are attacking it on Internet hate sites.
Anti-Muslim hate crimes in the US have soared dramatically in recent years.
According to the FBI’s recent figures, Islamophobic crimes increased from 28 incidents in 2000 to 156 incidents in 2006.
