Has it come to this New York? Stabbing and cutting people for being Muslim? We are shocked and ashamed at what happened and this attack may only be the beginning of what’s to come. Ahmed Sharif was the New York City cab driver who was a victim of a hate crime yesterday when 21-year-old Michael Enright got into his cab and confronted Sharif for being Muslim. As Sharif described it;
‘He started yelling at 39th Street and Third Avenue,’ Sharif said. ”This is checkpoint. This is a checkpoint, mother [expletive], and I have to put you down.”
Sharif says Enright started the ride with an Arabic greeting, but minutes later, he plunged a knife through the open security shield. The driver was stabbed on his arms, neck and face. If the wounds were any deeper, EMTs said, Sharif would have died at the scene.
CLICK NEXT TO VIEW SHARIF’S ACCOUNT ON WHAT HAPPENED
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Today Sharif will meet with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and offer his sympathy to the cab driver. Bloomberg told reporters that;
‘This attack runs counter to everything that New Yorkers believe, no matter what God we may pray to,’
Enright was taken to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric evaluation. He faces 8 to 25 years in prison if convicted. Defense attorney Jason Martin told the judge his client was an honors student who lives with his parents in suburban Brewster. He is asking that Enright be kept in protective custody.
