NY Times: NYC cabbie slashed today by passenger who asked if he was Muslim

[Empowerer]

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.

The driver, identified by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers’ group, as Ahmed H. Sharif, 43, stopped the cab and approached a police officer on Third Avenue near 42nd Street. Mr. Enright was arrested at the scene.

According to the taxi workers’ alliance, Mr. Sharif’s fare started the ride asking him in a friendly way if he was Muslim, whether he was observing Ramadan, and how long he had been in the United States.

After falling silent for a few minutes, the passenger began cursing and screaming, and then yelled, “Assalamu alaikum — consider this a checkpoint!” and slashed Mr. Sharif across the neck, and then on the face from his nose to his upper lip, the alliance said. (“Assalamu alaikum” — “peace be with you” — is a traditional Muslim greeting.)

Both men were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. The driver was in stable condition. A law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said Mr. Enright was “very drunk” at the time of the attack.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/cabbie-attacked/?partner=rss&emc=rss

It's being reported that the alleged assailant, Michael Enright, was a volunteer with The Intersections International, a group “dedicated to justice, reconciliation and peace across lines of faith, culture, ideology, race, class, national borders and other boundaries that divide humanity.” I wonder if this is less an anti-Muslim hate crime and more a case of someone losing his grip on reality. It all sounds very bizarre.

[Poll_Blind]

1. This is a bizarre and troubling story. I hope for a speedy recovery for Mr. Sharif and...

...hope that Enright gets some sort of help, though...the nature of the crime as reported leads me to believe he is a person who has some serious issues. It's so disgusting to see New York City, probably the truest, oldest, melting pot in our country turn into such a bastion of racism & religious intolerance. I know most New Yorkers are not like this but it still makes me sad.

First, they came for the Muslims, y'all. We're still so far from the America we think we live in.

PB

[vaberella]

2. How is this bizarre? It was quite common after 911.

I knew a lot of my friends who were Indian and non-Muslims who were attacked because of the way they looked. This is not uncommon and I'm just surprised there's not more attacks considering the way the media has inflamed the situation.