ALBUQUERQUE – A North Carolina man has been sentenced to a year of probation and two months of home detention for attacking a Muslim woman during a flight, forcibly removing her hijab while shouting “this is America”.

“You hurt me, you disrespected me you violated me,” the victim, Khawla Abdel-Haq said in court on Tuesday, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

“I was scared, and it shouldn’t be like that,” she said, adding that she didn’t leave her home for weeks out of fear after the in-flight attack.

Gill Parker Payne, from Chicago, was fined $1000 and ordered to a year’s probation including two months of home detention.

Payne was sitting a few rows behind victim, Abdel-Haq, on the Southwest Airlines flight in December 2015.

Payne admitted in a statement: “I stopped next to her seat, looked down at K.A., and told her to take off her hijab, stating something to the effect of ‘take if off! This is America’.”

Appearing apologetic in court, 37-year-old admitted saying something to the effect of “take it off! This is America” while flying between Chicago to Albuquerque in New Mexico.

US attorney Damon P. Martinez warned that the attack represents an alarming trend targeting Muslims, and hijabi women in particular.

“The case sends a clear message to anyone who contemplates the use of threats or intimidation to interfere with the right of individuals, including members of our Muslim community, to express their faith without fear,” Martinez was quoted by Albuquerque Journal.

Over the past months, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been accused of fueling anti-Islamic sentiment, pointedly calling for Muslims to be prevented from entering the United States in December last year.

The rhetoric has made a surge in anti-Muslim attacks.

In a 2015 hate crime statistics report, 16.1 percent of 1,140 religious hate crime victims were Muslim, up from previous years, despite the fact that overall hate crime numbers among other religious groups were declining, the FBI said.