'I thought we were going to die.' Muslim woman recounts SUV attack in Nutley

She sat in shock in her Toyota Camry, gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles, her 16-year-old son beside her. A second earlier, an SUV had sped up in the Carvel parking lot and slammed into the driver’s side of her car – intentionally.

They sat stunned, as the SUV reversed to do it again. As she heard the revving of the engine, she thought this might be the day they die.

“You get into that mode. How am I going to protect my kid? I’m thinking next he’s going to pull out a gun and we’re going to get shot. It’s the craziest feeling,” said the 39-year-old woman, recounting the April 21 attack on Franklin Street in Nutley.

The Bergen County woman did not know her terrorizer, had never seen him before that day when she stopped at an ice cream shop. Inside the store, she said, he started screaming anti-Muslim slurs at her, calling her a terrorist and saying he hated her.

She told him, "You're calling me a terrorist, but here you are terrorizing me." She asked those in the store, “Aren’t you going to do anything?” she said.

She thought the encounter would end when she left the store. But according to the woman, as she drove out of the parking lot, the SUV exited an entrance-only driveway, waited for her approaching car and then struck it, twice.

Township police arrested Michael Morrison, 55, at his Nutley home later that day, charging him with aggravated assault, bias intimidation and other crimes. 

The woman shared her story publicly for the first time in an interview this week. She asked to not be named to protect her family's safety.

She said it's not the first time she's been accosted because of her faith – visible for all to see because she wears a niqab, a traditional Islamic veil that covers her face except for her eyes. 

Her car was struck with such force, she said, that she continues to suffer from wrist, elbow, hip and back pain weeks later, while her son has shoulder and knee pain. Then there's the emotional toll – the fear she feels for herself and her family as someone who is a visible member of the Muslim faith. 

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The incident comes amid a rise in reported hate crimes across New Jersey and the rest of the U.S. targeting people for their perceived race, ethnicity or religion. New Jersey reported 561 bias crimes last year, for the third consecutive annual increase.

Hate rhetoric in politics, media and online forums has targeted Muslims and, many believe, has put them squarely at risk. That’s especially true for women who may be more identifiable because of how they dress.

On the same day as the Nutley incident, Amani al-Khatahtbeh, a Muslim candidate for Congress in central Jersey, got a phone call at her parent's home in East Brunswick from a man spouting slurs and threats of violence against her and her family.

The mother in Nutley did not want her name published out of concerns for her family’s safety. But the U.S.-born convert to Islam said she also did not want to be viewed as a victim.

“I’m only doing this because I want to show the injustice that happens against Muslims,” she said. “I want to show what really happens to Muslim women, to Muslims period. I want to be a voice.”  

Born in New York City and raised in Florida, the woman said she grew up Christian and attended Methodist services before branching out to explore other religions, from Catholicism to Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was Islam that struck a chord; the faith teachings made sense to her, she said.

She converted 10 years ago and started wearing the niqab three years later. She said she did not want to attract attention for her appearance and felt more comfortable that way.    

The niqab, she felt, was never an obstacle. She attended college in New Jersey, where she became vice president of service for the school's National Honor Society and president of the Muslim Student Association.

After graduation, she started a business making and selling natural bath and body products. Three years ago, the woman founded a nonprofit to help foster children in New Jersey, organizing a weeklong summer camp program and back-to-school supply drives, she said. 

At times, she has felt people’s stares in public, but she does not judge. They could be looking at her because they are curious or interested, and not necessarily because they mean harm, she said.

The first time she was attacked was earlier this year while she was shopping at a grocery store in Lyndhurst. She said she was browsing shelves when a woman approached and started yelling that she was disgusting and should go back to her country. Then the woman grabbed a shopping cart and started shoving it into her.

“It never really crossed my mind somebody would do something like that,” she said. “I am from this country.

“I was so shook, I couldn’t even press record on my phone to record it,” she added. “After, I felt so bad that I couldn’t handle that situation. I look at myself like a strong woman. This was one of those times in my life that I felt I wasn’t in control.”

She called police but without witnesses, it was one word against another and there was not much they could do, she said.

So when she was attacked in April, she had the foresight to take a photo of the other driver's license plate, she said. She said he told her that he hated her and wanted to kill her. She said she thought the worst he might do was tailgate her vehicle.

“I definitely thought we were going to die. Everything he was saying, his threats, he was trying to do what he said he would do,” she said.

She said he tried to strike a third time, but she was able to move her car by then. After he fled the scene, she said she asked witnesses if they could stay to talk to police. 

Morrison remains in jail at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark. 

"We cannot comment about open cases except to say that anyone charged with a crime is innocent until and unless they are proven otherwise," said Jennifer Sellitti, a spokeswoman for the state Public Defender's Office, which is representing Morrison.

Along with the bias and assault counts, Morrison faces charges of making terroristic threats, unlawful possession of a weapon – his car – and possession of a weapon with an unlawful purpose, according to the county Prosecutor's Office.

Morrison appeared May 1 in Essex County Superior Court, but the judge ended proceedings after the defendant began shouting that he didn't recognize the court's jurisdiction, Katherine Carter, the prosecutor's spokeswoman, said in an interview. Morrison was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation.

Morrison pleaded guilty to terroristic threats in a 2014 case in which he threatened to kill another person, according to court records. He was sentenced to two years of probation.

The Bergen County woman said the stress of last month's attack has exacerbated her asthma. Insurance won’t cover damage to her car because it was an intentional act and not an accident, she said. 

She worries about her son: “He always acts like he's the one who has to protect me or take care of me. I don’t know how he feels. He’s a teenage boy.”

She considers herself a social person, noting her involvement in community organizations and charitable work. But for now, she doesn't want to go out much, not after what happened.

“I am Muslim,” she said. “I have faith in Allah. That’s a huge part that helps me get through this. It keeps me going and helps me understand and process this.”

Hannan Adely is an education and diversity reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: adely@northjersey.com Twitter: @adelyreporter