Man stabs taxi driver, charged with hate crime

Wikinews
August 27, 2010

A 21 year-old man has been charged with attempted second-degree murder, and first-degree assault as a hate crime, for stabbing a taxi driver in New York City after he asked the driver, “Are you Muslim?”

On Monday night, Michael Enright hailed the taxi at 24th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan. After taxi driver Ahmed Sharif replied to him that he was Muslim, Enright stabbed Sharif through the plastic partition that is installed in most taxis. Before the stabbing, which required over 24 stitches for Sharif, Enright allegedly said assalamu alaikum, Arabic for “peace be upon you”, made some jokes about Ramadan, the Muslim holy month; “consider this a checkpoint”, and “I have to bring you down.” Enright was drunk during the taxi ride.

Sharif, whose throat had been half slit open, locked all doors of the taxi, drove to 42nd street, and flagged a police officer standing on the corner. Enright managed to get out of the car on the way.

“Of course it was for my religion. He attacked me after he knew I was Muslim,” Ahmed Sharif, the taxi driver, said to reporters. Sharif also said that Enright didn't talk about Park51, the highly controversial proposed Islamic community center and mosque two blocks away from the site of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“This is a highly vicious attack on an innocent person based on his religion,” James Zaleta, an assistant district attorney, said in court. Zaleta also said that Enright slit Sharif's “neck open halfway across his throat.”

“As other American minorities have experienced, hate speech often leads to hate crimes. Sadly, we’ve seen how the deliberate public vilification of Islam can lead some individuals to violence against innocent people," Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, stated.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement that “this attack runs counter to everything that New Yorkers believe, no matter what God we may pray to.” Bloomberg has invited Sharif to meet him in New York City's City Hall.

Enright, who is a filmmaker, is a volunteer for Intersections International, an organization that promotes cross-cultural understanding. Intersections International recently endorsed the building of the Park51 project, labeled by critics as the “Ground Zero mosque”, and is working on a film on US Marine's experiences in Afghanistan, of which Enright is a part of the filmmaking. To make the film, Enright visited Afghanistan. Chelsea Laber, a friend of Enright, said that “everyone is really in shock. If you knew him, you would know he didn't have a harmful bone in his body.”

Intersections International released a statement saying that, “the news that one of our volunteers (if confirmed) was involved in a hate-crime runs counter to everything Intersections stands for. Our hearts are with the cab driver and everyone in his family. We work aggressively to build bridges of understanding across lines of faith, and cultures especially around the Muslim community. The news that Michael (if confirmed) was involved in this hate crime, runs counter to everything we stand for and is shocking, based on our experience with him as a volunteer. Any act committed against someone because they are Muslim is deplorable. If confirmed, his actions are no excuse, and inexcusable. We intend to reach out to him and try to help in his healing at the appropriate time.”

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