HANGRY? This Muslim Food Cart Vendor Blames Ramadan Fasting for Him Racially Insulting a Black Woman and Hitting Her with a Bottle

A food cart owner accused of a racist attack on a customer earlier this week released two rambling videos Friday, defending himself, blaming fasting for the incident and the media for blowing it out of proportion, and saying he hopes to go back to Egypt, his home country.



He also talks about using the racial slur and dousing the woman, who is African American, in Sriracha sauce.



Islam R. El Masry, the owner of Small Pharoah’s Egyptian and New Yorker Food at Southwest Fifth Avenue and Stark Street in downtown Portland, was arrested Wednesday after being filmed throwing a Gatorade bottle at customer Carlotta Washington.



…Washington told KGW in an interview that she never threw anything at El Masry.



El Masry says that after the bottle broke on the grill, he had to throw everything he was cooking in the garbage. Then, he says, he started insulting her “really bad,” got the Sriracha sauce and “put it in her face.”



He says he was in a bad mood because of pressure on his business and fasting for Ramadan.



“I was fasting at that day, and you know Ramadan,” he says, “we fast for like 18 hours now, and it’s really hard like to be in a hot place, no water and no food, and you’re cooking the food right in front of you. … plus also I’m a smoker, and I can’t smoke during the fasting.”



El Masry says even before the incident his main concern is selling his business so he can go home.



“My mom is sick,” he said. “My father’s sick.”