Police: NYC Cab Driver Stabbed By Passenger Who Asked "Are You Muslim?"

[Ian David]

A city cab driver is in the hospital after being stabbed by a passenger who allegedly asked if he was Muslim, police tell NY1.

Investigators with the New York City Police Department say it all began Monday night when a 21-year-old man hailed a cab at 24th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.

Police say the passenger asked the driver, "Are you Muslim?" When the driver said yes the passenger pulled a knife and slashed him in the throat, arm and lip.

The 43-year-old driver was able to lock the passenger in the back of the cab and call 911.

More:
http://manhattan.ny1.com/content/top_stories/124338/police--cab-driver-stabbed-by-passenger-who-asked--are-you-muslim--

Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/mattduss/status/22084999494

[bullwinkle428]

1. Charge Fox News as an accessory.

[Canuckistanian]

15. Also Rupert Murdoch and Pamela Geller

I've always said, the first signs of violence over this "mosque" thing and THEY'RE the ones to blame.

[Roland99]

20. And, individually, BecKKK, The Twit, Insanity and toss in Limbaught, Savage, et al

[Xenotime]

40. RW terrorists have drawn first blood.

[Jennicut]

The stirring up of hatred is leading to this.

It is beyond out of control.

[dkf]

5. Yet once it first hit the media, did you not see actions like this as a strong possibility?

All sides have their crazies. We have unleashed all of them.

[mmonk]

6. So who's stabbing right wingers?

[xchrom]

7. +1

[dkf]

8. I think that will come but not necessarily against the right wing.

Hopefully I am wrong.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. Against whom, then? Please share.

[dkf]

30. Someone random.

Sigh. Violence begets violence.

[Ian David]

17. Their spouses. n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. "All streets have rapists. This woman unleashed all of them by walking this street."

"Ergo, it's her fault she was raped." :eyes:

[Occulus]

23. Ignored again?

I don't even log out any more to see who it was.

Every time I do so, I have my decision confirmed. That's as polite as I get.

[TheWraith]

26. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

Your analogy fails. To make it accurate, you'd have to say that the person who unleashed it was the one who found the crazies, and whipped them up with a speech about the evils of "those sluts" who wear skirts and perfume. :eyes:

[EOTE]

28. Wow, what poor use of equivocation.

You keep telling yourself that we're as bad as they are. Maybe you'll believe yourself some day.

[dkf]

32. Who is we?

[EOTE]

33. Democrats. The side that "we" are on.

The words you post suggest that all sides are equally to blame. That's not even a little true.

[dkf]

45. No that wasn't what meant at all.

Democrats are the one group that don't seem to have extremists, at least not recently.

[pinboy3niner]

34. "We" have unleashed the crazies?

Who do you mean by "we"?

[Jennicut]

36. "We"? No, the right wingers did this themselves. People have to accept responsibility for their own

actions.

[mike r]

2. Islamophobia in action

Stupidly dangerous or dangerously stupid?

[dkf]

3. This was what I worried about.

[Ikonoklast]

27. Concern noted.

One-note symphony of intolerance.

[dkf]

35. When expressing worry and concern over someones welfare is

Called intolerant that is when you know it's gone off the deep end

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Hate crime.

[yodermon]

9. Where's the breathless non-stop media coverage of this hate crime?

first i'd heard of this.

[mnhtnbb]

10. Happens Monday night and as of late Tuesday no charges filed?

:wtf:

[Ian David]

16. I see four possibilities.

1) They're trying to decide whether to prosecute this locally or as a federal hate crime.

or

2) The cab driver is undocumented or had an unlicensed fire arm and is trying to decide whether filing charges would do him more harm than good.

or

3) It comes down to each person's word as to who started the fight.

or

4) One or both parties is too seriously injured to give good answers to the cops.

[pinboy3niner]

41. Charges are being reported now

They include: attempted murder as a hate crime, first-degree assault, aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon in the attack.

[tanyev]

11. Quick-thinking cab driver.

Glad he wasn't hurt any worse.

[malaise]

12. Thanks Newt and Lady Blah Blah

Go Cheney yourselves! :puke:

[Javaman]

13. While I believe this happened...

I have to ask anyone here; have any of you ridden in the back of a cab these days?

There is a clear plastic wall between you and the driver with a small opening where one puts their fare.

I don't see how the person slashed the cabbie.

Perhaps they got rid of the clear plastic wall?

[Betty88]

14. lots of cabs do not keep the wall closed

Just this morning I took a cab and it was wide open.

[Javaman]

24. Thanks for the info. :)

Cheers!

[Mz Pip]

19. Independent drivers

often have cabs that aren't much different from regular cars.

[myrna minx]

18. Way to go Newt, FOX News et al.

Way to stoke the hatred. I'm sure this will win hearts and minds in our various war zones. :eyes:

[Marr]

25. If this had been a Muslim asking if the cabby were Christian...

it'd be a national story for weeks. Somehow, I doubt this will make it much beyond New York City.

[dem mba]

29. well duh

i mean then it would be a 'terrorist' attack, right? and it happened on Obama's watch!!

:eyes:

[ellenfl]

31. y did the passenger have 2 go 2 the hospital? eom

[slackmaster]

37. Good question. I'll bet the cabbie fucked him up.

We'll see.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

39. I hope so. -nt

[Scurrilous]

38. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Ian David]

42. Meet the New York cabbie-stabber (Update)

A screen shot of Michael Enright's Facebook page.

The man who allegedly stabbed a cab driver after learning that the driver was a Muslim is Michael Enright, a 21-year-old filmmaker from upstate New York. Enright -- who shoots video for a New York-based peace group that counts Cordoba Initiative as one of its partners -- has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime, and police say he was "very, very intoxicated" when he got in the cab at 6 p.m. last night.

The New York Post says Enright "recently returned from Afghanistan," and adds details -- provenance completely unknown -- to the story:

At one point, Enright said, "Al salaam aalaykum" -- the Arabic greeting meaning, "Peace upon you."

<snip>

As the cab neared east 41st Street, about a block away from Enright's destination at 42nd Street and Third Avenue, he barked, "This is the checkpoint motherf---er. I have to f--- you up this time."

<snip>

The Post initially described Enright as an active-duty soldier, but they have updated the story (without a correction) to indicate that Enright told police he "works for an Internet media company" that had been in Afghanistan filming a combat unit "until this past May."

More:
http://www.salon.com/news/crime/?story=/politics/war_room/2010/08/25/cab_stabbing_update

Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/GottaLaff/status/22111668895


See also:

Man Is Held in Anti-Muslim Stabbing of Cabdriver

Updated, 1:56 p.m. | A cabdriver was attacked Tuesday by a knife-wielding passenger who made anti-Muslim remarks, the police said.

The passenger, Michael Enright, 21, of Brewster, N.Y., hailed the cab at Second Avenue and East 24th Street around 6 p.m. Tuesday, the police said. Twenty blocks north, they said, he slashed and stabbed the 43-year-old driver in his throat, face and arm.

<snip>

“I feel very sad,” Mr. Sharif said in a statement released by the taxi workers’ alliance. “I have been here more than 25 years. I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here. I never feel this hopeless and insecure before.”

He added that “right now, the public sentiment is very serious” because of tensions over Park51, the proposed Islamic center that some critics call the “ground zero mosque.”

The police charged Mr. Enright with attempted murder as a hate crime, assault, aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon. He was awaiting arraignment on Wednesday.

More:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/cabbie-attacked/

[Ian David]

44. See also: Muslim cab driver slasher just back from filming Marines in Afghanistan

Muslim cab driver slasher just back from filming Marines in Afghanistan
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9015155&mesg_id=9015155

[PerpetuallyDazed]

49. This is very tragic.

I think this complicates the "hate crime" indictment. It's not a very clear cut case... This vet was clearly intoxicated and having a flashback moment. A similar thing happened to my hubby after we went out drinking one night, two weeks after he returned from Iraq; it took the police 2 hours chasing him for blocks around our neighborhood because he thought he was under an insurgent attack. That was probably the most frightening night of our lives.

On edit: I still think Faux News is obviously responsible for spreading anti-Muslim sentiment.

[Ian David]

50. New information has come to light. He has a journal full of anti-Muslim tirades.

They mentioned it on the news this morning.

[Diclotican]

51. PerpetuallyDazed

PerpetuallyDazed

True, flashbacks can do thing to you, that is not exactl good for everyone else.. Hope your Hubby are okay now, and maybe is getting some help for what he experienced in Iraq... Or at least someone to talk with.. Just been able to talk to a person, who know what you are talking off, can at least doing it better for him..

My foster dad, who was in action under world war two (he was rather old when we came to them) had some flashback to the war, specially when some big anivarisaries was up, it was not in the ammount that you have experenced, I doubt he was running from cops becouse he belived to be under attack from germans.. But I know he once, when he was really sic, and hospitalized belived he was under arrest by the germans, and was rather paranoid about everything.. The food, the water he got and so one.. In his mind it was 1942, even tho the year was 2004... For the most part it was more in the ammount, of he not be able to sleep at night, before he would dream about what he had experienced.. And many nights I know he had been up all night.. Trying to stay away from the memories he know would hunt him when he was going to sleep.. I rembember wel, when it was 50 year since the war ended, and he could not sleep well for 4 weeks..

Diclotican

[mnhtnbb]

43. I predict there will be more of this. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers

have been deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan, and a good portion return with PTSD.

[lib2DaBone]

47. Why does this Enright kid remind me of a Columbine Shooter?

"He just got back from Afghanistan filming Marines", ... huh? I wonder if Enright had any contact with the CIA recently? Or was this a simple hate crime perpetuated by Glenn Beck and Faux?

Something very strange going on...

[Maru Kitteh]

46. K & R

[Turborama]

48. K&R Thanks for breaking this story, Ian David

The similarities to what went on in Germany leading up to the 1935 Nuremberg law are becoming more and more apparent.

[Diclotican]

52. Turborama

Turborama

I for one have never belived to live to the day, when the similaries between Germany in the 1930s, and the US would resemble anything near the same.. For some reason I have allways belived that US is a better nations, where the peopole really understod things, and US was a land of LAWS, not off the opposite

I was wrong, deadly, naive wrong about it all.. But a warning from a "history buff".. If US is to start laws like the Nuremberg laws, then you are up to a ugly suprise in the end.. This type of laws, have the ugly ability to hit others also, not just Jews, or in this case Muslims.. It cal also hit back on every minority, religious or "race" big time..

Diclotican