US man charged with hate crime for stabbing Muslim cabbie
By DPA, IANSTuesday, August 31, 2010
NEW YORK - A 21-year-old American suspected of knifing a Muslim taxi driver in New York has been charged with attempted murder and assault, which could put him in jail for 25 years if convicted, news reports said Tuesday.
Michael Enright was charged with the hate crimes by a grand jury in Lower Manhattan late Monday.
Enright is charged with slashing the throat and face of the driver, Ahmed Sharif, after asking him whether he was a Muslim. The suspect was sitting in the rear seat of the taxi in downtown Manhattan Aug 24.
The wound on the throat and arm required dozens of stitches.
Police said Enright plunged the knife through an open partition inside the car, saying: “Consider this a checkpoint.”
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said following the incident that Enright said, “Assalam alaikum” (Arabic for ‘peace be unto you’) before he stabbed the driver. Sharif managed to lock the car and called for help once he was outside.
Before he was received at City Hall by Mayor Michael Bloomberg Aug 26, Sharif told local television networks, “I saw on his face so much hate and so upset, the anger at me, because of my religion, and it’s a shock to me.”
The attack on a Muslim driver also shocked New York while controversies swirl over plans by a Muslim group to build an Islamic cultural centre just two blocks from the World Trade Centre destroyed by terrorist attacks Sep 11, 2001.
