Muslim Stabbed In NY As Mosque Tensions Threaten To Spill Over

Fears were growing that a backlash against New York Muslims had begun after a taxi driver was knifed because of his religion.

Film student Michael Enright, who had recently been embedded with US Marines, reached through the taxi’s partition and allegedly slashed Ahmed Sharif’s throat, face and arms.

Before he did, he asked if the New York cabbie was a Muslim.

After being told yes, he then, in a soldier-like voice, said: ‘This is the checkpoint. I have to bring you down’.

Enright, 21, has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime, first-degree assault as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon.

But the alleged attack has reignited fears that the proposed Ground Zero mosque could open the floodgates to dozens of similar hate crimes.

The attack was last night linked to the issue.

Imam Shamsi Ali, director of the Jamaica Muslim Centre in Queens, New York said that the Ground Zero mosque ‘may well have been a factor behind the attack’.

He said: ‘For me the debate about the mosque at Ground Zero has been used as a justification for a whole movement that is against Islam and I hope that it will pass soon.

‘There is the possibility that this incident is the first of more to come and that it will lead to more attacks.

Click to read more...