Former Obama administration adviser caught berating Muslim food stand worker in New York

A man who once served as an adviser to the Obama administration has been caught berating a Halal food stand worker in the US, prompting immediate backlash.

Stuart Seldowitz was captured in two videos shared to social media on Wednesday that saw him waving a badge with the Israeli flag at a food vendor during a rant labelled “racist”.

The man behind the counter, who remains unidentified, filmed Mr Seldowitz for several minutes, where he is called “terrorist” and ridiculed for being Muslim.

“I’m gonna get big signs here saying ‘this guy believes in Hamas’,” he says, wagging his finger.

Mr Seldowitz then questioned the man’s claims that he is an American citizen and said “if we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough”.

In another video, Mr Seldowitz holds up his phone to snap a picture of the man, presumably to alert authorities. He then puts away his phone and chuckles.

The man then tells him he does not speak English.

“Well that shows how ignorant you are,” Mr Seldowitz replies. “Muhammad was a rapist, it says it in the Hadith.

Mr Seldowitz responded to the controversy on Tuesday, saying the altercation broke out after he asked the vendor if he was Egyptian.

As the conversation progressed, the man reportedly expressed support for Hamas, but no such claims are captured on any of the videos that have been in circulation.

“At that point, I got rather upset and I’ve said things to him, that in retrospect, I probably regret, though — that I do regret,” Mr. Seldowitz said via the New York Times.

“Instead of focusing in on him and what he said, I expanded into insulting his religion and so on.”

Mr Seldowitz said he had wanted to ask if the man was “still a supporter of Hamas”.

“I was upset at the fact that he was selling food in a neighbourhood in New York,” he continued, insisting that he is not racist.

“I’ve worked with Muslims,” he said.

“I have many people who are Muslims and Arabs and so on, who know me very well and who know that I’m not prejudiced against them.”

Gotham Government Relations, a D.C.-based lobbying firm, cut ties with the former official as the video spread like wildfire.

“Gotham Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz, an individual who hasn’t contributed to our work in years,” the lobbying firm said Tuesday on X.

“The video of his actions is vile, racist, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm,” they said.