Stranger punches Muslim man on his cellphone in religious attack, NY officials say
A hate crime indictment was filed in New York against a man accused of repeatedly punching a 25-year-old in what officials said they believe was a religiously motivated attack.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in an Aug. 26 news release that a Brooklyn man repeatedly punched the Muslim man while making anti-Muslim remarks.
The 34-year-old man is charged with two counts of third-degree assault as a hate crime and one count of second-degree aggravated harassment, officials from the district attorney’s office said in the news release.
Court documents and statements made in court said the Muslim man was talking on his phone in Urdu while walking in Midtown Manhattan at about 8:50 p.m. Aug. 5. The Brooklyn man then walked by, spat on him and made an anti-Muslim remark, officials said.
“(He) continued to make anti-Muslim remarks, including calling the man a ‘terrorist’ and telling him to ‘go back to Asia,’” officials said in the news release.
The Muslim man followed him, asking why he spat on him, according to the district attorney’s office. The man continued making anti-Muslim remarks, then punched the 25-year-old in the face multiple times, officials said.
Later, the men entered a subway station where the Brooklyn man punched the Muslim man in the face again and fled the scene, officials said.
The Brooklyn man was arrested Aug. 8, according to the news release.
“We will continue to hold those accountable who commit acts of hatred, which have no place in our city,” Bragg said in the release.
Reports of Islamophobia at a high
According to a 2024 civil rights report, the Council on American-Islamic Relations received more than 8,000 complaints of Islamophobia in 2023 — the highest number recorded in the organization’s 30-year-history — with hate crimes and incidents being among the most reported categories.
The report credits “escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine in October 2023” as the main source for uptick in Islamophobia, noting that nearly half of all the complaints were received in the final three months of the year.
“It is important for our community to see hate crimes called out and prosecuted as the heinous acts they represent,” Afaf Nasher, executive director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement.
This story was originally published August 28, 2024 at 8:30 AM with the headline "Stranger punches Muslim man on his cellphone in religious attack, NY officials say."
