Local residents mock town official as a 'suicide bomber' after learning of her Muslim faith

Reem Townsend, a local trustee of DuPage Township, Illinois, is being subject to "upsetting" and "dehumanizing" abuse from residents after learning that she is Muslim, reported Patch on Tuesday.

"Townsend ... was breaking her fast while observing Ramadan. Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims, marked by a period of fasting, which is broken after sunset. This year, Ramadan runs from March 20 to April 20," reported Andrea Earnest. "Townsend said she began eating during the meeting, after the sun had set. She was speaking to a resident during the meeting when they mocked her and said, 'go back to eating your lunch.' Townsend said she has broken fast during meetings before, when they have fallen during Ramadan."

That was not the only abuse leveled at Townsend, per the report: "During the town hall meeting, the new planned food pantry/resource center in Bolingbrook was discussed. One resident can be heard on video saying how they voted for Townsend, and a person in the audience can be heard saying, 'He didn't know that she was a suicide bomber.'"

"It was upsetting," said Townsend in a statement to Patch. "Especially because some people disagree with my politics and my views. But, to bring up something that attacks my faith ... nobody does this to Christian people. It's dehumanizing."

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Muslims in America have faced ongoing discrimination, suspicion, and hate speech against them, a phenomenon that spiked after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In one case last year, a teacher at the Franklin Academy charter school in South Florida was fired after using a whistle to disrupt Muslim students' prayer, exclaiming, "I believe in Jesus so I'm interrupting the floor."