New Yorkers show support for Muslim victim of violence

"Are you Muslim?" The answer: "Yes," led to the stabbing of a New York City taxi driver

Ahmed Sharif, a 43-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant, who was wounded in a stabbing said Thursday he believed he was attacked because of his religion but did not blame the public furor over a proposed Islamic center and mosque near the World Trade Center site.

The mayor of New York City acted quickly, inviting him and his family to meet with him on Thursday.

"No matter how wonderful this country is, no matter how wonderful this city is, there's always somebody who acts disgracefully," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. After Sharif, his wife and their four children met with the mayor, he told reporters: "Now I feel a little better than before."

"Our mayor is continuing to help and to make sure I'm safe, that my family is safe," he said. "This is the city of all color, races, all religions. Everyone, we live here side-by-side peacefully."

The incident occurred Tuesday when a passenger in Sharif's cab Tuesday asked if he was Muslim and celebrated Ramadan and then slashed his neck, face and shoulders.

Sharif, who was treated at a hospital for his wounds, spoke at a news conference organized by the mayor at City Hall.

"Of course it was for my religion," he said of the incident. But asked if he thought it was related to the mosque debate, he said: "No, we didn't talk about the mosque."

The attack came amid increasingly heated debate over a proposal to build an Islamic center and mosque two blocks from the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks that toppled the World Trade Center and killed nearly 3,000 people.

Opponents say the plan is insensitive to families of the victims of the al-Qaeda suicide hijackers and the center could foster religious extremism.

Supporters include the mayor; David Paterson, the governor of New York; President Barack Obama; a group that lost their family members in the attack, the "September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows;" and at least 40 religious and civic organizations to form a coalition called "New York Neighbors For American Values."

New York is home to some 800,000 Muslims, about 10 percent of the population, and there are about 100 mosques throughout its five boroughs. One, the Masjid Manhattan, is four blocks from the World Trade Center site known as Ground Zero.

About half the city's cab drivers are Muslim, according to the head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, who said the emotionally charged controversy helped fuel the violence.

"The rhetoric has risen to such a point that violence was inevitable," said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the alliance. "Fearmongering leads to hate crimes. Fear-mongering is at the heart of what happened to Ahmed Sharif."

Imam Shamsi Ali of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, which was the city's first building erected specifically to house a mosque, said: "When the incident happened two days ago it really created a lot of tension, fear, and worry in the community that this will happen to them ... especially the women who symbolize Islam through their dress. It's very, very scary, but we are working very closely with law enforcement," he said.

Suspect Michael Enright, 21, was charged with attempted murder as a hate crime, assault and criminal possession of a weapon, police said he was drunk when he was arrested near the scene of the attack in midtown Manhattan.

Enright is a college student who told police he recently traveled to Afghanistan and has volunteered with an organization that promotes interfaith dialogues.

Counterterrorism analysts worry that the rhetoric surrounding the mosque may provoke extremists to violence. 




Barbara Ferguson writes for Arab News - Saudi Arabia's first English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1975 by Hisham and Mohammed Ali Hafiz. Today, it is one of 29 publications produced by Saudi Research & Publishing Company (SRPC), a subsidiary of Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG).