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Virginia: Muslim family claims hospital guard kicked them out, said niqabbed women looked “scary”

Jan 12, 2019 8:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

Muslims now own the mass media, apparently, and any charge levied against an infidel by them, newsworthy or not, becomes a big news item, such as the hijab-wearing 11-year-old girl in Canada who lied about being attacked by an “Islamophobe”; a Huffington Post writer still wrote that she deserved an apology. Now comes more big news in the same vein: “a Muslim family says staff at a Virginia hospital told them they looked ‘scary’ and threatened to kick them out when they went to visit a newborn relative in December.” Note that one is only “allowed” to use the words “Muslim family” or “a Muslim” when the story is about alleged Muslim victimhood, not when the story is about a Muslim victimizing someone.

And since when do individual allegations of stereotyping and insults make national headlines?  It is also worth mentioning that the family states that the staff took issue not with the fact that the family was Muslim, but that the women were fully covered in black niqab. It’s offensive that a hospital staffer allegedly said they looked “scary”? The niqab has been banned in China, Tajikistan, Morocco, Latvia, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Chad, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, and France; Chad and Morocco specifically stipulated that they were doing so for security reasons.

Note also the last line of the hospital’s statement: “We understand how important visitors are to our patients and their care. However, certain units in the hospital require family visitation hours to assure that all patients have a quiet, healing environment.” Could all this have simply been because the Zahrs came outside visitation hours?

The implication in the headline “‘You Look Scary’: Muslim Family Describes Discrimination at Virginia Hospital” is that some “racist” hospital in Virginia has problems with  “Islamophobia.” In Northern Virginia, which has a large Muslim population, that is extremely unlikely. And this is all on the word of one Muslim family. In Pakistan, woe be to a Christian who is accused of blasphemy on the mere word of a Muslim, but in the U.S. there are more stringent rules of evidence, at least for now. The message being sent to the general public in many parts of the West now is this: “You better not offend or insult Muslims, or else. You too can be shamed on ‘anti-Muslim’ charges. No evidence, just the word of the Muslim carries big risks for you.” In the case of Arwa Zahr, the damage is done, whatever the outcome of this case. The claim of “Islamophobia” has already again been imprinted on the minds of readers.

“‘You Look Scary’: Muslim Family Describes Discrimination at Virginia Hospital,” by Julie Carey and Andrea Swalec, NBC Washington, January 10, 2019:

A Muslim family went to a hospital in Northern Virginia to celebrate a joyous occasion: the birth of a newborn baby.

But they say hospital staff humiliated them by telling them they looked “scary,” and threatened to kick them out.

Visiting hours were nearly over when the Zahr family went to Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, in early December. They wanted to visit Ahmed Zahr’s newborn baby.

When they got up to the third-floor birthing center, they were confronted by a security guard, Arwa Zahr, the newborn’s aunt, said in an exclusive interview with News4.

“He screams and he says, ‘You’re not allowed to be here!’ And then he said, ‘You know, you look scary,'” she recalled. “I was shocked, like, ‘Did he say that?'”

The Zahrs believe the guard was objecting to the full black veils Arwa Zahr and her mother wore, showing only their eyes.

The family was ordered to go back downstairs. When the newborn’s father learned what happened, he told the guard he had been disrespectful.

The guard summoned the shift supervisor, whom the family identified as the head nurse, and things got worse, the family said.

“We tried to explain to [the supervisor] our side of the story. He looked at my mother as she was trying to explain what happened, and he told her, ‘Close your mouth or I’ll kick you out,'” Ahmed Zahr recalled.

The family said that wasn’t all.

“He’s telling them, ‘Nobody wants you here. The nurses don’t want you. The doctors don’t want you here,'” Ahmed Zahr said.

As he continued to defend his family, the supervisor called police.

“It was surprising to me. First of all, we weren’t threatening in any way. No one had done anything,” Ahmed Zahr said.

The family spoke with Fairfax County officers, who they described as calm and helpful, and then left the hospital. Then, they registered formal complaints with Inova.

The incident was especially hurtful because the infant’s grandparents, Dr. Nabil Zahr and Karima Zohdi, once volunteered as chaplains at Inova Fairfax Hospital, another hospital in the Inova system. They founded and run The Palm Tree School, a private school in Fairfax that provides Islamic studies as well as the standard curriculum.

Ahmed Zahr said his family had never encountered such abuse.

“Just to be treated like that just because of the way you’re dressed,” he said. “We’re been living here for, you know, 20-plus years. I haven’t witnessed discrimination to this extent.”

Inova said all patients “have the right to a respectful, safe environment, free from all forms of discrimination.” They said they reviewed their anti-discrimination policy at all daily safety meetings.

The hospital group said Inova is reviewing the family’s concerns, and that they offered to meet with the Zahrs.

The family said they’re not interested in meeting until Inova says what action they’ve taken related to their specific case, and what any investigation they conducted found.

In the meantime, the Zahr family calls the day they visited the hospital for the birth of a baby “The Day of Mortification.”

They didn’t get to meet Ahmed Zahr’s first child, a baby girl, that day.

Here’s the full statement Inova sent News4:

Inova respects and values our diverse patient community and believes that all patients have the right to a respectful, safe environment, free from all forms of discrimination. We hold our team members and contractors to the highest ethical standards, supported by a strict zero tolerance policy against discrimination of any kind.

We are reviewing the family’s concerns and we continue to look for opportunities to better manage these situations in the future….

We understand how important visitors are to our patients and their care. However, certain units in the hospital require family visitation hours to assure that all patients have a quiet, healing environment.

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Filed Under: "Islamophobia", claiming victim status, Featured, United States Tagged With: Ahmed Zahr, Arwa Zahr, Fairfax, Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, niqab, Virginia


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Comments

  1. Diane Harvey says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 8:19 am

    “It’s offensive that a hospital staffer allegedly said they looked ‘scary’?”

    Why is that offensive? They were.scary-looking?

    • mortimer says

      Jan 12, 2019 at 9:30 pm

      Is MISOGYNY ‘scary’ to anyone? Well, it should be. Veiled women all have the ISLAMIC STOCKHOLM SYNDROME.

      Isn’t the STOCKHOLM SYNDROME ‘scary’?

  2. Terry Gain says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 8:44 am

    Traditionally, in western societies only outlaws wear masks. We are having problems adjusting to our new masters, who whine even as they they take the best our society has to offer while imposing their barbaric laws and customs on us.

    This is a Muslim Fashion Statement. WE ARE HERE AND WE AREN’T GOING TO INTEGRATE.

    • Savvy Kafir says

      Jan 12, 2019 at 2:22 pm

      It definitely seems as if they are making a point of not integrating. They are Islamic colonizers.

      • mortimer says

        Jan 12, 2019 at 9:36 pm

        And the Islamic colonizers have a history of PERSECUTING the kafir. Isn’t that ‘scary’. The KAFIR is the TARGET of Muslim supremacism. Are you a KAFIR?

  3. Mac-101 says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 8:45 am

    The really scary thing is who owns/controls the majority of the MSM? Why do THEY advance the Muslims cause when the Muslims make no secrete that it is first the Saturday People, then the Sunday people?

  4. Terry Gain says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 8:50 am

    Now for some Muslim propaganda photography. “Abdul, put on your saddest, yet most determined face. Ahmed, look like you have never been so oppressed. Maryam, just hunch your shoulders, like always.

  5. Spiro says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 8:53 am

    Well the entire group looks scary
    The old guy looks like he’s wearing a nightgown
    And I find their attitude toward western values to be
    offensive

    • Savvy Kafir says

      Jan 13, 2019 at 2:31 pm

      I’m offended every time I see a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf in my country, or a Muslim man with a beard. They are signaling that their values are Muslim values, not Western values. And they have no business being here. They have no right to be here.

  6. revereridesagain says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 9:42 am

    Well, if I’d been in the hospital and a crew of niquabed and bearded slaves of Allah marched past my door it certainly would have ruined my “quiet healing environment”.

    Anyway, aren’t baby girls greeted with tears and wailing because the women know how she will be treated as she grows up? That wouldn’t have contributed to the “healing environment” either.

  7. abad says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 9:59 am

    Look at the way they are dressed. They certainly do not look American. If they want to dress like Moslems then they should move to Saudi Arabia.

    • Anne Smith says

      Jan 13, 2019 at 8:00 am

      Absolutely agree and the same for all those who dress in this ridiculous manner in UK.

      • Savvy Kafir says

        Jan 13, 2019 at 2:35 pm

        Agreed! They all need to go.

  8. Laurence says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 9:59 am

    Sometimes that which ‘looks’ out of place, even medieval, in a modern society and Western culture (with its hard fought for and won liberties, and established social mores and norms and standards) is what it is; and in such an instance, it is understandable should one possibly say, ‘alien’ or “scary” in their honest reaction in describing what they are seeing; and especially so if one knows anything about Islam, especially the so-called ‘political’ Islam.

    (I suspect that “political Islam” is terminology we, mostly in the West, have in good part come to use due to political correctness. Turkey’s own Erdogan had said something along these lines: there is no moderate or immoderate Islam, there is only Islam.)

    Unvarnished and truthful education, not “hurty” feelings, should rule the day and the way forward. However it seems the “hurty” feelings scenerio’s seem to be winning far more often.

  9. Kilauea says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 10:29 am

    If the heifer wants to look like Cousin ITT that’s her business. If people think she looks scary and creepy that’s their business. Those two a-holes with her don’t look that warm and fuzzy either.

    • Savvy Kafir says

      Jan 13, 2019 at 2:40 pm

      If she wants to dress that way, it’s her business, as long as she lives in a Muslim-majority country. It doesn’t belong here. It symbolizes a barbaric & hostile ideology.

  10. Dave says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 11:12 am

    It IS scary that anyone is allowed i a public space who covers their face and cannot be identified. There should be NO exceptions to that rule.

    • abad says

      Jan 12, 2019 at 2:16 pm

      They wear those trash bags to hide their guilt.

  11. WPM says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 11:33 am

    All the news takes what the” Moslem Family “says as the truth what does the head nurse and security guard have to say in there defense. Could the truth be they came after visiting hours kick up a lot of noise and fuss on a floor filled with many new mothers with newborns that is why they were ask to leave ? I visited my nieces and other friends newborns in maturity wards there are restrictions on how many people can be in the room, noise levels and visiting hours apply for the safety of all mothers and newborns. You are expected to sign in and identify who you are that is hard to do if you are covered by a car tarp and refused to corporate .If I show as a man covered head to toe refused to identify myself I might run into problems too .I am sure this stunt will have them try to get a separate maturity ward for the other Moslem families .

  12. FYI says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 11:48 am

    What’s missing from that picture is a ..Violinist following close behind them playing a self-pitying tearful tune.

    The security guard “He screams”..could they give us an idea of the decibel level used?

    The whole story is a contrived islamic sob story to make the muslim out to be a victim.

  13. Lynn Miller says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 12:40 pm

    Hospitals must be very careful about who they let visit obstetric unit patients because of the dangers of visitors kidnapping infants. Newborns are often not in a nursery where access is restricted but boarding in the mothers’ rooms making them vulnerable to a snatch and run kidnapping. Often the patients in the maternity unit must provide the names of approved visitors. The guard may actually have been reluctant to admit people whose faces were covered as he was unable to identify them as the people on the list of approved visitors.

    • somehistory says

      Jan 12, 2019 at 1:41 pm

      Lynn Miller,

      I was thinking of this same thing. covered as she is, there is no way to even verify that the covering held a female underneath. And it could have covered an infant snatched from the room or nursery as they made their escape.

      • abad says

        Jan 12, 2019 at 2:18 pm

        Agreed, She also could have been hiding a bomb underneath that trash bag.

        Blow up the whole hospital.

        Ishnaq.

        • Barbara Murray says

          Jan 16, 2019 at 12:51 am

          My son and his wife just had a baby in a Minneapolis, MN Hospital. Every time I visited, I had my photo taken, whichwas put on a name tag. That was required to
          enter the maternity ward. That black blob thing is scary!

  14. Lynn says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 12:41 pm

    There have been kidnappings of infants from hopsital matenity units in the past.

  15. somehistory says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 1:38 pm

    ““I was shocked, like, ‘Did he say that?’””
    ***************

    Maybe not. My instincts say “no.” It sounds like a fishy hoax to gain attention, special attention and acceptance, and no complaints against anything moslim. Any time, any place by any one for any reason.

    In other “news”…related:
    Halloween Masks: What’s Allowed or Banned
    With reports of creepy clowns scaring kids, including this week in Ashburn, Halloween costume shoppers need to know Virginia’s law on masks.
    By Sharon Reed, Patch Staff | Oct 20, 2016 1:17 pm ET

    https://patch.com/virginia/ashburn/halloween-masks-whats-allowed-or-banned

    To read the actual Virginia code:
    https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter9/section18.2-422/

    • Bud says

      Jan 12, 2019 at 3:56 pm

      Interestingly, the article you provide here notes a religious exemption for wearing a mask or anything hiding the face, but the description of the law which you provided the link to, shows NO religious exemption for wearing anything covering the face.

      • somehistory says

        Jan 12, 2019 at 4:35 pm

        I noticed that and so provided both for others to compare. I believe the author of the “story” added the religious thingy to make their article more “acceptable” perhaps. less “phobic.”

      • somehistory says

        Jan 12, 2019 at 4:37 pm

        Bud,
        Or even to deceive their readers who would not take time to read the actual law.

  16. CogitoErgoSum says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 1:52 pm

    You have to keep in mind that these people believe they are the best of mankind and that all others not like them deserve to be at their feet — either groveling in submission or dead. I have no sympathy for them until they change their attitude. They are free to find another country to live where the people think the same way they do. I suggest Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.

    • CogitoErgoSum says

      Jan 12, 2019 at 3:18 pm

      Although I must say I feel pity for the baby girl if she is to be raised in an environment where she must submit to hiding herself under a burka every time she leaves home.

      • somehistory says

        Jan 12, 2019 at 3:22 pm

        CogitoErgoSum,

        As do I. And so many other things she will be made to endure for a slimy, evil, false god and fake prophet. Just having to leave the hospital with those creatures is the stuff of nightmares, not to mention what comes afterward.

  17. somehistory says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 3:53 pm

    Something else: This guy, and others before him, say that they haven’t been discriminated against before. This is an important fact.

    Immediately after 9/11 would have been the most likely time for any “discrimination’ against moslims…if it happened at all. Immediately after, they began to assert themselves and claim harassment, hatred, bigotry, etc. But, the oic hadn’t as yet come up with the “phobia’ against them.
    And other countries hadn’t at that time allowed so many in to their communities.

    However, they soon learned they could be lazy on the job…whatever the job, doctor, cook, delivery driver, clerk in stores, etc. and then claim discrimination for being moslim. Numerous cases have been filed with the EEOC in the past few years and many have been won by the moslims complaining.
    Dress, food, time to prey, rooms to prey, foot baths, etc. all to push the envelope in their favor.
    Now, they are in large numbers everywhere and feeling their powers increase. The time is ripe to make claims against those who “discriminate”…but there are not any real actions of people against them. So, they have to make things up, find it where it doesn’t exist, lie and whine and keep on until they get special privileges.

    They arrived at the hospital too late for visiting hours. They were told to leave for this reason. Hospitals have rules to benefit the patients, not the visitors.

    But moslims think they are above all of the rules…any where they wish to go and break them. So they create a scene, lie and fabricate. Just as their infamous fake prophet.

  18. gravenimage says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 3:59 pm

    Virginia: Muslim family claims hospital guard kicked them out, said niqabbed women looked “scary”
    ……………………

    What a load of crap. Any video proof? I doubt it.

    • wisebutcranky says

      Jan 12, 2019 at 7:50 pm

      gravenimage, I am sure there actually is video proof – of what really happened. Most hospitals are completely covered with security cameras. I hope the actual footage is made available to the public, to prove it’s yet another fake ‘hate crime’ and that the security guard acted professionally.

  19. ntesdorf says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 4:38 pm

    The other patients in the hospital must have been scared at the arrival of what looks like the Grim Reaper and his entourage,

  20. Lory Darnell-Gustafson says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 6:35 pm

    They love the publicity.

  21. Lory Darnell-Gustafson says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 6:42 pm

    Sounds like they are happy for the publicity. I’m sure they anticipated and hoped for this outcome. More proof of Islamaphobia and (if anyone notices) their demonstrated unwillingness to assimilate to Western culture that welcomes them.

  22. Jay says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    This story stinks the more you stir it! Muslims invade – they never acclimate! It has been my experience if
    you arrive after visiting hours at hospitals in my area, you are NOT allowed in. Some ER’s require walking through a metal detector as well. These people knew the rules and provoked the incident so they could sue! Again, it’s in Sidon, not acclimation!
    God save America !! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

  23. Jay says

    Jan 12, 2019 at 8:33 pm

    Correction. Its invasion, not acclimation !!
    God bless America 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

  24. Marbran says

    Jan 13, 2019 at 9:51 am

    The niqab is also very effective at masking the signs of physical abuse. How convenient.

  25. Tekyo Pantzov says

    Jan 13, 2019 at 11:39 am

    I’m offended by this Mohammedan horseshit.

  26. DavyD says

    Jan 13, 2019 at 2:06 pm

    That wasn’t the full statement. You missed out 2 whole paragraphs..

    “Inova’s senior leadership values our longstanding relationship with the family and has extended an invitation to meet in person.

    All employees are aware of our anti-discrimination policy and are required to complete ethics and compliance training annually. Following this incident, as part of staff awareness, the policy was reviewed at all of our daily safety meetings.”

  27. Brian K says

    Jan 14, 2019 at 10:27 am

    These kinds of news stories really show the decrepit state of news reporting. The reporter is just reporting the stuff that will cause outrage and get clicks. The hospital is presumed guilty thanks to this lousy reporting. Rarely are these stories ever as simple as they seem. Shame on these reporters and editors that keep tearing this country apart with such shallow, slanted reporting.

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