Cab driver Ahmed Sharif is in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital in NYC after being stabbed by a passenger earlier this week. Michael Enright, 21, reportedly asked Sharif if he was a Muslim. He asked where he was from, how long he'd been in America, and if he planned on fasting for Ramadan. Sharif answered all his questions, and Enright then yelled, "Assalami Alakium, consider this a checkpoint." and slashed his throat.
Sharif, in a statement released by the New York Taxi Alliance, said "I feel very sad. I have been here more than 25 years. I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here. I never feel this hopeless and insecure before."
The details about the above story came from Fox News. So do the following comments from Fox News viewers/readers, following the article on the website:
"And this is wrong because ......."
"If it takes hate to fight terrorists, then so be it. I hate Muslims because they are terrorists and are attacking my country, just like the Nazis and the Japs did back in the '40s. Don't be stupid people, this is WAR. At this moment the sleeper agents in our country are trying to build their shrine to terror while Iran steps up its plans to produce nuclear weapons they can hit us with. Don't be fooled by the ENEMY!"
"Very unfortunate at this juncture but this sort of act will not be isolated if m0slems do not start to LOUDLY and INCESSANTLY start to condemn the acts of their fellow m0slem terr0rists which are occurring DAILY on a GLOBAL SCALE. The problem with that is they will have to go against the teachings of their political cult / religion and will be considered apostate by the true followers of the cult ... dam_ed if they do, dam_ed if they don't. "
"This is just the beginning of all the trouble that this Mosque at ground zero will cause. Why make more trouble for your own kind. Build it somewhere else! Unless you really are trying to make a point, and if that is the case take your punishment as it comes."
And that's just the first page. I couldn't take anymore so I didn't click on page two. The actions of Enright and the comments by the above armchair patriots are the consequences of constant hateful rhetoric from those on the right. And even the mainstream these days. The Muslims are the bad guys. They spread just enough hate so that those that want to hate Muslims or blacks or hispanics or gays feel justified; but are able to continue to hide behind 'plausible deniability'.
This is just another isolated incident, I guess. I won't bother to call for any elected leaders on the right to stand up and strongly denounce the waves of anti-Islam rhetoric conservative talking heads and bloggers are successfully spreading across the nation, I know none of them have the balls to do it.
Best wishes for a quick recovery to Mr. Sharif.
This is truley sad.. My prayers go out to Ahmed Sharif for a fast recovery. He is innocent follower of his faith and was targeted for it. This is wrong, so so wrong.
We hear a lot of talk about moderate Muslims standing up to the radical fringe yet few Republicans, at least those running for office, seem willing to take on their radical wing (one that's more dangerous to this country than any other terrorist group).
Limbaugh, Beck, and Hannity will all spin this so the cab driver is at fault. Of course there's always the old standby, "It's Obama's fault."
offshore, spot on.
Lately it seems conservatives believe that the only way to guarantee their own liberty is to see to it that no one else has any. That if someone gets stabbed for being Muslim, well, that's just what they get for wanting to build a community center two blocks and around the corner away from Ground Zero.
Good conservative voters (there are some, I know it) HAVE to start standing up against the rhetoric that leads to this behavior. They HAVE to start letting officials know they're not going to vote for people that stir up this crap.
I read this a little while ago on ABC and it made me sick. This line from that areticle made me even sicker:
"A spokesman for a New York City cabbie group blamed the attack on the proposed construction of an Islamic center near Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attack, but police said they were not aware of any link".
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/muslim-question-leads-cabbie-stabbing-hate-crime-charge/story?id=11480081
A cabbie, who happens to be Muslim, gets attacked for believing what he believes and they are blaming...Muslims of course. Who else?
God help us.
Holy Shit.
I am so saddened by the hatred and ignorance displayed by these morons.