عمدة نيويورك يستضيف السائق الذي طعنه أمريكي بسبب إسلامه

استضاف "بلومبيرج" عمدة "نيويورك" "أحمد شريف" سائق الأجرة الذي تعرض للطعن على أيدي أحد زبائنه الأمريكيين أثناء تبادل الحديث عندما علم الزبون أن السائق مسلم.

وقد رحب "بلومبيرج" بالسائق وزوجته وأبنائه الأربعة، مبديًا أسفه على ما تعرض له السائق من اعتداء إجرامي بسبب دينه الإسلامي على يد المجرم الأمريكي "ميتشيل إنريت"، الذي كان في رحلة إلى "أفغانستان" لعمل فيلم تسجيلي عما يتعرض له الجنود الأمريكان من مصاعب ومحن.

وقد تم اعتقال "ميتشيل إنريت" - الذي يدرس بكلية الفنون المرئية - وتم توجيه الاتهام له بحيازة سلاح والقيام بارتكاب جريمة بدافع الكراهية الدينية.

وقد أشار "بلومبيرج" في تصريحه أنه يود التأكيد على أن المادة الأولى من الدستور والتي تفيد احترام التعددية وكفالة الحرية هي أساس التعاملات اليومية بـ"الولايات المتحدة"، وأنه بالرغم مما يتعرض له المسلمون فإنه يرغب في التأكيد على عدم وجود عداء أمريكي للمجتمع الإسلامي بـ"الولايات المتحدة".

الخبر من مصدره الأصلي:

Bloomberg Meets With Cab Driver After Stabbing Attack

Yesterday at City Hall, Mayor Bloomberg met with Ahmed Sharif, the cab driver who was stabbed by a drunken passenger because of his religion. Despite the harrowing experience, and the lingering trauma from the attack, Sharif affirmed his love for NYC: "I feel like I belong here. This is the city actually [for] all colors, races, religion, everyone. We live here side by side peacefully."

Bloomberg invited Sharif, his wife, and their four children to meet after Sharif was attacked by Michael Enright, a 21-year-old film student who had spent some time in Afghanistan making a documentary about soldiers. Asked whether he thought Enright's attack had any relation to the planned mosque and community center two blocks from Ground Zero, Sharif said, "We didn't have a talk about the mosque...Of course this was for my religion. He attacked me after he knew I was a Muslim." Bhairavi Desai of the Taxi Workers Alliance, which is 50% Muslim, said violence felt "inevitable" after all the political rhetoric and furor around the Ground Zero mosque: "While they can hide behind a podium and bully pulpit, it's the ordinary working person on the street that faces the consequences. Fearmongering leads to hate crimes."

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly confirmed that two journals filled with anti-Muslim comments were found on Enright during his arrest, but are waiting for a warrant to parse through them. Enright, an honors student at the School of Visual Arts from upstate Brewster, was being held without bail at Rikers Island yesterday on charges of attempted murder as a hate crime, assault, and weapons possession. He was moved to Bellevue Hospital's psych ward last night.