Yasmin Saunders (left) has spoken out after her family was mocked in a grocery store.

Sometimes an onlooker speaks up. Sometimes no one says a word. Each and every time, regardless, it’s senseless and humiliating.

But this brave woman was not going to let her perpetrator get away with it.

In a Facebook post that is going viral, Yasmin Saunders explains how she “experienced first-hand how evil and hateful people can be” during an incident in a supermarket.

Saunders is a woman from New Orleans, Louisiana, who happens to be Muslim. Her parents had come to visit her and her husband, a white Christian man, and they were at their nearby supermarket preparing for a celebratory family barbecue.

Saunders tells of how she turned around the corner of an aisle, when a man threw bacon into their shopping cart and said “Merry Christmas buddy” to her father.

It’s well-known that many Muslims do not eat pork and pig derivatives, including ham and bacon, for religious reasons.

Saunders wrote that “her heart instantaneously crumbled into a million pieces”. Her father simply thanked the man, who was laughing.

But she refused to stay silent.

“I turned around and asked the man why would you do something like that? He said because I can! I realized (sic) he had his son with him who didn’t look older than 9,” she wrote on Facebook.

“I said to him, ‘That’s absolutely disgusting of you that you’re doing this in front of your son, teaching him hate in his heart. What a wonderful example you are’.”

She went on to explain how her husband was unable to understand why she was crying.She said this was because he’d never experienced anything like this before.

She went on to make a powerful statement on behalf of Muslims like her: “We are Americans just like you. We cry with you and we bow our heads and pray when we have fallen service members. We place our hand over our heart when we hear the pledge of allegiance just like you.

“We are not different and our faith and the color (sic) of our skin doesn’t define us. We are afraid too, but we shouldn’t be afraid because of my religion. We are fighting the same enemy. We are not the enemy. We are ordinary people just trying to get by.”

The post has attracted almost 3000 shares on Facebook, with hundreds of people commenting to express support for Saunders and her family.

News.com.au has contacted Saunders for comment.

Earlier this month, a severed pig’s head was dumped near a mosque at a Western Australian university, sparking an outcry from students on social media.