RHONE: Perry Greene apologized for his behavior, but what is he going to do about it?

It didn’t matter that they were U.S. born and raised. Greene spent three minutes letting them know there was no place for them in America.

“You’re worshipping a false God,” he said to the women who had set up their prayer mat in an empty parking spot to pray before celebrating the end of Ramadan at the shopping center.

When the girls tried to walk away, Greene cruised alongside them to continue his tirade.

He said a lot of other mealymouthed, mumbo jumbo that I won’t bother repeating but suffice it to say that the words coming out of his mouth were so ridiculous that I almost felt embarrassed for him. Is life so bad that he has nothing better to do than cruise parking lots and pick on young women?

At one point, one of the women asked Greene if he was Christian. I imagine she hoped to offer insight into Islam, a religion that Greene apparently knows nothing about. But he quickly shut down that line of questioning because there is no room for reason when the goal is to harm.

On Friday afternoon, days after videos of the exchange landed on websites and news channels, Greene once again appeared in front of cameras — this time with an apology.

At the news conference, livestreamed from outside of Masjid Jafar Al-Rahmah Community Center in Johns Creek, a hub for Atlanta’s Muslim community and the local mosque of the young ladies who were verbally accosted, Greene sounded cartoonish uttering the words, “I humbly apologize …”

He then said he hoped the young ladies would find it in their hearts to forgive him for being “mean.” I can think of more specific adjectives for his behavior, but as Greene already said in the video footage that the girls recorded during the encounter, he doesn’t care about being called a racist.

Greene told the crowd of reporters and onlookers that no one should be treated the way he treated the women and then said we shouldn’t allow the kind of behavior he exhibited in our society.

Agreed. But exactly what is Greene planning to do to make sure that he doesn’t engage in that same behavior again?

There is a difference between apologizing because the public witnessed your bad behavior and apologizing because you truly believe you did something wrong.

Apologies can have a real impact, even when they aren’t sincere.

They can serve to enforce rules of social conduct, and perhaps Greene’s acknowledgment that he veered outside the lines of acceptable behavior will reinforce the importance of those rules for everyone else.

But a sincere apology doesn’t end at condemning your bad behavior. It also lets the person or people that you have harmed know exactly how you plan to do better.

Greene’s apology, at least the public version, included recognition of his having said mean and disrespectful things about Islam, but it felt as if he barely acknowledged the humans that he hurt in the process.

The Georgia chapter for The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked the Alpharetta Police Department to investigate the incident, but police said no crime was committed.

In a statement, the police department said “in our community all speech is protected — even the speech we may not agree with.”

Ali Jamal Awad, an attorney representing the three women involved in the incident, disagreed with that sentiment during the Friday news conference.

“Not all speech is free,” he said. “Some of it will cost you.”

Awad said that Greene, in private discussions with the families and their attorneys, entertained the idea of contributing to a nonprofit organization that works to combat Islamophobia but noted they had not yet come to a resolution.

Anyone who has ever had Greene’s brand of free speech directed at them has likely felt frustration, disgust and doubt that the responsible party will change.

The choice to do better or not is Greene’s burden, and I hope the three young women let him carry it so they can move forward unencumbered, feeling more empowered to live as freely and openly as they desire and deserve.

Read more on the Real Life blog (www.ajc.com/opinion/real-life-blog/) and find Nedra on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AJCRealLifeColumn) and X (@nrhoneajc) or email her at nedra.rhone@ajc.com.