A former adviser to Barack Obama has been recorded making Islamophobic comments to a street food seller in New York City. Stuart Seldowitz, who was also deputy director of the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003, was filmed berating a halal food seller in Manhattan. In a video, Mr. Seldowitz asked the seller if he was Egyptian, before saying he had “friends in immigration”. Mr Seldowitz then said “The Mukhabarat [Egyptian intelligence agency] wants your picture”, before taking a photograph of the man. He then asked him: “Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll take them out one by one.”
