New York - Another hate crime against Muslims occurred in New York City. A Muslim store owner was heavily beaten by a man who said “I kill Muslims”, according to local news Pix 11.Fifty-three-year old Sarker Haque, an American Muslim from Bangladesh, owner of the Fatima Food Mart on 21st Avenue in Astoria, Queens, recounts how a man stormed through his shop and punched him repeatedly for being a Muslim.
New York – Another hate crime against Muslims occurred in New York City. A Muslim store owner was heavily beaten by a man who said “I kill Muslims”, according to local news Pix 11.
Fifty-three-year old Sarker Haque, an American Muslim from Bangladesh, owner of the Fatima Food Mart on 21st Avenue in Astoria, Queens, recounts how a man stormed through his shop and punched him repeatedly for being a Muslim.
In a television news report by the same source, Haque appeared with a black eye and described the incident that occurred on Saturday afternoon.
“He punched me here,” the victim said referencing the back of his neck. “I fell down here,” he showed near an ice cream cooler inside the Fatima Food Mart.
He went on to add: “I say, ‘What the hell you doing? What’s wrong with you? [The attacker] said, ‘I kill Muslims.’”
According to the same source, Astoria police have identified the attacker as Piro Kolvani. He was arrested and charged with hate crime, yet he was later released.
“He punched me as much as he can with his left hand,” Haque explained in tears to Pix 11 news reporter. “He grabbed me here. Then punched me here,” he added, while pointing to his face.
Fortunately, two unidentified passersby saw the attack against Haque and defended him from the attacker until police arrived.
A Latino man, Haque described as one of his loyal customers heard his cries for help and rushed to the scene.
“I’m bleeding this time,” the victim said, “so [my customer took] hold of [the attacker]”.
Another man called 911 when he saw the incident. Neither of the two good Samaritans that saved the Muslim store owner were Muslims, the same source noted.
“It doesn’t matter what color or nationality you are,” the victim said. “We are in America. Everybody came from somewhere.”
However, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose anti-Muslim rhetoric is turning Muslims into America’s number one “enemies,” does not share that mentality.
Trump said on Monday he wants to ban entrance of Muslims into the U.S. He also wants to impose a special ID card for all Muslims in America.
A series of hate crimes toward Muslims have occurred in New York and the Northeast of the U.S. following the Paris attacks on November 13.
Last Sunday, the same report noted, someone threw a rotting and bloody pig’s head outside of a mosque in Philadelphia.
Last month, at P.S. 89 elementary school in the Bronx in New York, a group of sixth-graders bullied and tried to remove a girl’s hijab from her head. The kids accused her of belonging to ISIS.
