DA, Police Investigating Alleged Melrose Anti-Muslim Incident

MELROSE, MA — The Middlesex District Attorney's Office and the Melrose Police are investigating what Melrose city officials recently described as "racist, Islamophobic attacks" against a Melrose city councilor, the DA’s office and the Melrose Police confirmed on Thursday.

The investigation comes after officials said two women made Islamophobic comments to Councilor Maya Jamaleddine and her family at a local gas station on Saturday. One of the women also pushed Jamaleddine's husband, according to officials.

Jamaleddine, who is Muslim, joined the council in 2020 as Melrose's first Muslim elected official.

“Simply put, these racist, Islamophobic attacks have no place in our city or anywhere,” the Melrose Human Rights Commission and the Melrose Mayor’s Office said in a joint statement Thursday. “We must call out these acts and stand with our residents who are the subject of these attacks.”

Personnel with the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) this week called for a hate crime investigation into this incident.

A Middlesex District Attorney spokesperson told Patch that the office is investigating.

The city also said police are looking into the case in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office in a statement attributed to Melrose Police Chief Kevin Faller.

City officials said Jamaleddine and her family pulled into the gas station over the weekend to put air in their car’s tires.

A pair of women pulled up alongside the car while Jamaleddine’s husband filled the tires, officials said.

One of the women rolled down her window and told Jamaleddine and her family “Go back to your ******* country,” according to the Human Rights Commission and the Mayor's Office.

Officials said the incident continued, with the two women continuing to direct “additional hateful and vulgar words at Councilor Jamaleddine and her family.”

“The Melrose Human Rights Commission and the Mayor’s Office want residents of Melrose to know that there is zero tolerance for hate speech, hate incidents, and hate crimes,” the commission and the mayor's office said this week.

Officials encouraged community members to reach out to the commission, the mayor’s office and the Melrose Police “if they experience or see any overt expressions of hate-motivated incidents or speech in Melrose.”

Jamaleddine served on the city’s Human Rights Commission prior to her role on the council, beginning in 2015.

CAIR said it is representing Jamaleddine, adding that videos of the incident taken by Jamaleddine’s husband have been turned over to the Melrose Police.

CAIR shared its account of the incident, saying Jamaleddine’s husband overheard the initial "go back to your ******* country" comment. He responded, CAIR said, asking the woman “why she would say such a thing.”

CAIR said Jamaleddine’s husband filmed the woman’s license plate. Video then shows the woman following him back to the family’s car, according to CAIR.

CAIR said video shows the woman “allegedly shoving” Jamaleddine’s husband while she tried to film their family’s license plate.

“It’s one thing to be the advocate and totally different when you are the victim,” Jamaleddine said in a statement through CAIR. “I have encountered racism in the past, but never to this extent, where my kids witnessed it and felt unsafe in their own community.”

CAIR said Jamaleddine and her family were “deeply shaken by this ugly incident,” with Jamaleddine adding that the family has been trying to process what happened.

“One thing that has been helpful is the amount of love and kindness that people poured on us,” she continued.

“Please know I'm not the only Muslim who is encountering racism and Islamophobia, but I chose to speak up while others are still suffering in silence,” Jamaleddine said this week.

CAIR Legal Director Barbara Dougan condemned this incident and commended Jamaleddine this week.

“An individual who would engage in an act like this would most likely have done this before and would continue doing so – except that now, the incident has been documented and an investigation can proceed,” she said.

Dougan went on to thank bystanders who she said helped comfort Jamaleddine’s children, who were in the car when this incident took place.