The Halifax Man Who Caught a Racist Attack on Muslims on His Camera Phone Speaks Out.
This story follows the incident we covered in our GTA Muslims Today newsletter on July 8, 2026, regarding a hate crime in a Halifax Costco. A lone white man verbally assaulted three visibly Muslim individuals who were shopping peacefully. Fayez Hamam, who recorded the incident on his phone and was assaulted himself by the suspect, has now come forward to share his account.
“The incident deeply impacted me,” Fayez stated. “Not physically, but mentally.”
Hamam began recording the video after he heard the suspect “screaming, yelling, and even physically engaging” with a family that included two women in hijabs and a gentleman with a beard. Although the video is only a couple of minutes long, Fayez indicated that the incident lasted about 15 torturous minutes.
In the video, the suspect can be heard shouting, “Get the **** out of our country!” and threatening to kill “every one of you.“
“There is this brave woman who confronts him, and you can see it in the video,” Fayez said, referring to an elderly white woman who attempted to intervene. Despite her efforts, the suspect ignored her and continued his verbal assault against the visibly frightened Muslim family, who were trying to distance themselves from him.
“Once he was done with the woman, he suddenly turned around and hit me hard,” Fayez recalled. This moment can be seen in the video as the suspect strikes Fayez, knocking the phone out of his hand.
Fayez praised Costco staff and management for taking the incident seriously. Security guards quickly intervened and escorted the suspect out of the store.
“I returned home feeling angry about what happened,” he said. Fayez reported the incident to the police, and an officer came to his house to take his statement. “I’ve been here in Halifax for more than 19 or 20 years, and this is the first time I’ve witnessed something like this,” Fayez remarked.
He then reported the incident to the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), a leading advocacy organization dedicated to combating Islamophobia and promoting human rights for Canadian Muslims. Steven Zhou, the spokesperson for NCCM, commented that “we’ve been receiving one or two calls about issues like this or similar incidents almost every day for the last few months.”
Community leaders at the Ummah Masjid Mosque in Halifax condemned the incident as hurtful.
“It’s painful to see this happen to a citizen of this land who was out shopping with his family. It’s unacceptable,” said Ali Duale, operations manager at Ummah Masjid.
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