Without direction on my part she said, "They seem to be trying to provoke reactions, and the man will sometimes get very close to other shoppers like he's trying to get noticed."
And while not originally intended as such, I think it is safe to assume that "Allahu akhbar" (uttered fervently anywhere other than in ritual prayer) is a trigger. Just my $0.02 worth, adjusted for inflation.
Yeppers, there are "provokers" out there, and I daresay a lot of us learned this as kids growing up. Bullies love to use provoking gestures/speech/tactics, for example.
You can see some people demonstrate this with what I call "peacock strutting"...one classic maneuver being to get in the face of one another, hands down, chests out, full-on "I dare you, motherf*cker" language flying.
Other's stick to the crowd, throwing taunts...which can be even more dangerous, because often they're providing a distraction so others can circle their hapless victim.
Situational awareness...recognize these things early and immediately move to better your posture. If that means leaving, great. Being alive the next day, without knife wounds or the like, is a powerful rebuttal to "chicken" cat-calls.
Or, for that matter, surviving a violent encounter only to have to deal with all the legal and social repercussions for having defended yourself with lethal force.
People living this kind of life are either going to wake up dead themselves one day, or having lived their entire lives on the cusp of violence. 'Cause one day they'll provoke the wrong person and find out there really IS some motherf*cker out there more dangerous than they.
Yeah...they can have that.