An ugly cultural war against the Islamic mosque in lower Manhattan and anything Muslim-related has been brewing to a boiling point for weeks. But now it is turning violent.
Michael Enright, a 21-year-old white male, got into a taxi cab in New York City last week driven by 43-year-old Ahmed H. Sharif, who happens to be a practicing Muslim. Enright initially engaged in polite conversation with Sharif, asking where he was from, how long had he been in America, and if he was observing the fast during Ramadan. When Sharif acknowledged that he was in fact a Muslim, Enright began violently cursing at Sharif and shouted “Assalamu Alaikum, consider this a checkpoint,” while slashing him in the throat, arms, and hand.
With blood gushing from his wounds, Sharif was somehow able to escape the attack and flag a police officer, who successfully apprehended the highly intoxicated Enright. He was charged with attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime, assault in the second degree as a hate crime, aggravated harassment in the second degree as a hate crime, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. A hospital emergency medical technician said that had the cuts been any deeper or longer, the driver would have died.
Sharif is a father of 4 who immigrated to the United States from Bangladesh 25 years ago, and has been driving a cab for more than 15 years. “I never feel this hopeless and insecure before,” he said. Sharif appeared late last week with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at City Hall, in a moment of unity and to calm fears and anger before tensions could potentially escalate out of hand. But with emotions already elevated in New York City over a planned Islamic mosque and cultural center several blocks from Ground Zero, some officials believe this is not just an isolated incident, but could possibly be the start of something much bigger.
With Muslims being specifically targeted and mosques being vandalized throughout the country, Islamic fear and hate is sadly on the rise in America. At the Madera Islamic Center in Fresno, CA recently, a sign was posted that read: “Wake up America, the enemy is here,” which followed a brick attack thrown through a window at the center only a week prior. And at the Iman Mosque in the Queens section of New York, a man unexpectedly barged in, shouted anti-Muslim slurs at the worshippers, then with the ultimate disrespect he urinated on prayer rugs. Said one worshipper: “He calls us terrorists, yet he comes into our mosque and terrorizes other people. This is a true hate crime.”
Sadly, these sort of actions only play directly into the hands of those who DO believe America is anti-Muslim. And it only bolsters their reasons for wanting to bring harm and engage Americans in a violent cultural war. But it should come as no real surprise, since conservative critics have for weeks been whipping up emotions that Americans should fear the Muslim “boogey-man.” Said one Muslim New Yorker: “So are we now going to ban Muslims from the Ground Zero site? Arrest them if they dare to pray at the memorial? Put a crescent moon patch on them? That’s the logical conclusion of all this rhetoric.”
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This was so sad. And the worst part is now the stabbers lawyers and the media are trying to make the guy out as some saint and nobody understands how he could do this. He stabbed the taxi driver because hes muslim plain and simple. So now he faces murder charges rightly so. I hope he gets what he deserves. And I hope this doesn't turn into a "us" versus "them' type thing.