Muslim family says someone spit on them at fair

TAMPA (FOX 13) - A Muslim family believes they were targeted at the Florida State Fair -  apparently spit on as they tried to take a family picture in front of the funhouse.

Now, Council on American-Islamic Relations is filing a report with the sheriff's office and asking anyone who saw what happened to come forward.

Meanwhile, the family says everywhere they go, they hear someone make an Islamophobic comments. And 13-year-old Jannah Chaouch says she's heard it all. 

But when she realized she'd been spit upon, she wanted to take a stand. 

"When you are walking around, they will sing religious songs, they'll follow you around and sing," she said of people who harass her in public. "They will stare at you a lot and when you walk by, they say little things. Like terrorist or something."

Her mother, Katie Hutto tells similar stories, but puts on a brave face for her daughter.

"Me and my daughters laugh about it. We put on our sunglasses and call it the hater shields. You go out and people are going to hate on you, you just have to be ready for it," Hutto said.

On Sunday though, sunglasses weren't enough. They were in front of the funhouse, about to take a family picture.

"Right before we started, I felt something wet on my hands, I thought it was a raindrop or something," said Chaouch.

But her father found what he said was not rain, but saliva. 

"He was behind her, so he saw dots of spit on the back of her hijab," said Chaouch.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is working with the family and the sheriff's office to try and identify the person responsible. The family has come forward to make a point.

"Everybody is different. But we are all human. Everyone has different faiths, beliefs, but we shouldn't be treated differently," said Chaouch.

"Just accept people for who they are, don't let things happen like this, you wouldn't want it to happen to your family," said Hutto.

CAIR says the second highest number of Islamophobic attacks were recorded nationwide, trailing only the year before.

"It has become more of a norm, rather than a spike, we see several incidents a month," said CAIR attorney Thania Diaz Clevenger.

Jannah doesn't want these scary moments reduced to statistics.

"It shouldn't be something to brush off and just say, 'OK, I'll move on.' If I move on, something worse can happen to somebody else," she explained.

She does say that several people who saw what happened were supportive of them and said they were angry about it. Officials at the state fairgrounds say they have not heard of any other similar incidents, and that any report would be investigated fully.