A Muslim man of Bangladeshi origin was attacked by teenagers in New York who shouted “ISIS”, before beating him badly in what police are investigating as a hate crime.
Mujibur Rahman, 43, was attacked in front of his mortified 9-year-old niece as he walked in the Bronx on Friday evening.
The perpetrators pushed Mr Rahman to the ground and continuously kicked him, police said. He was later taken by ambulance to Jacobi Medical Centre, where he was treated for his injuries and released the next day.
Police said the Mr Rahman’s niece was not physically harmed, but the young girl was left traumatised.
“She could not sleep,” the victim told NY1. “She said she didn’t want to go back to school anymore.”
The assault of Mr Rahman is being investigated as a hate crime by the New York Police Department (NYPD).
Since last Sunday, no arrests had been made and an investigation is still ongoing by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force.
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations of New York (CAIR-NY), a Muslim civil rights organisation, called on the FBI to also investigate the incident. The attack is one of what the group considers a growing wave of assaults on Muslims in the US.
“The FBI should add its resources to the investigation of this disturbing incident in order to send a clear message to bigots that attacks on American Muslims will not be tolerated and that perpetrators of such attacks will face the full weight of the law,” said CAIR-NY’s director of operations Sadyia Khalique.
