A Muslim man who was “left to die” after he was attacked by a teenager outside a mosque in New York speaks out for the first time.
Mohamed Rasheed Khan used to cycle to his local mosque every night in his thobe without any hassle.
However, on the evening of 1 June 2016, he was allegedly attacked by a 14-year-old teenager and left unconscious until a friend came across him and called an ambulance.
The New York resident had left the mosque when the teenagers allegedly followed him and punched him in the face.
He was then repeatedly punched in the face and body.
“I wasn’t breathing, I was knocked out then, if somebody didn’t pick me up I might’ve died there,” Mr Khan told NY1.
The 14-year-old, whose name has not been released, has been charged with assault.
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He was with two other teenagers on the night of the attack, and the Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the case.
“Every day I go to the mosque, I come back at night, I never got attacked, just like that day they attack me, so maybe they would attack another Muslim too,” he said.
He suffered multiple broken bones in his face, fractured ribs, concussion and internal injuries.
Mr Khan has not been able to return to work. He reportedly walks with a cane and spends most of his time either at home or in the hospital.
The incident is one in a long line of what campaigners believe to be Islamophobic attacks in New York and across the US.
Last month two Muslim teenagers were beaten outside a mosque in Brooklyn.
A man who was beaten on his way to a mosque in the Bronx in June, Mohammed Atique Ashraf, said his white prayer cap might have made him a target.
A report released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender on the rise of Islamophobia in the US found that attacks on mosques nearly quadrupled from 20 to 78 between 2014 and 2015.
