Muslim student nearly run over by man who called her a terrorist: ‘I'm terrified to cross the street now’

A Muslim pre-med student said she was nearly run over and killed by a man who called her a terrorist.

Haneen Jasim said she was wearing her hijab as she walked home Saturday night from studying at a Starbucks near the University of Cincinnati, reported WLWT-TV.

The 22-year-old student said the driver started honking his horn, cursing and calling her a terrorist as she crossed the street -- and then he drove straight toward her and didn't stop.

Three people walking in front of Jasim grabbed her and pulled her onto the sidewalk just before the car struck her.

“Within an instant he tried to run over me," Jasim said. "If it wasn't for the three people in front of me, grabbing me onto the sidewalk, I would have been dead right there."

Jasim said the man drove away before she could read his license plate number, and she wasn't sure police could help her without that information.

So she instead called the Council on American Islamic Relations, whose officials said this was the third such incident of anti-Muslim harassment reported in Cincinnati since the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris.

"It's very disappointing, as well that people in our community would stoop so low," said Karen Dabdoub, executive director of the local CAIR chapter. "Obviously, the people here had nothing to do with the Paris attack or any terrorist attacks or terrorist ideology for that matter."

Dabdoub said a Muslim woman was assaulted in a Kroger parking lot in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood, and another Musli woman was insulted and spat on by someone in a passing car.

Jasim said it upsets her that some Americans don't see a distinction between Muslims and Islamic State militants, but she said her recent brush with death had terrified her.

“(It's) very upsetting, very scary," she said. "I'm very, very nervous for me, my friends, my family. I'm terrified to cross the street now."

Watch this video report posted online by WLWT-TV: