Two Muslim teenagers were beaten outside a New York City mosque by an attacker who shouted slurs at them, a rights group said on Monday, calling for police to investigate the incident as a bias crime.
The attack early on Sunday was at least the third involving Muslims in the United States over the weekend. A law enforcement source said investigators had ruled out the incident as a bias crime.
The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said in a statement that a 16-year-old boy was attacked outside Brooklyn’s Muslim Community Center as he took a break from prayers.
A surveillance video released by CAIR showed a man punching, kicking and stomping the youth as he lay in the street. Another teenager on a bicycle was chased and attacked when he rode past the boy.
CAIR said the man was reportedly heard shouting: “You Muslims are the cause of all the problems of the world” and calling the youths “terrorists.”
Afaf Nasher, the executive director of CAIR in New York, said the slurs warranted an investigation into a possible bias motive.
A spokesman for the New York Police Department said the 16-year-old suffered bruises to the head and was treated at a hospital. The second teenager refused medical attention. The spokesman gave his age as 17
Brutal attack: A car covered in daubs of blood also reveals the severity of the assault
The law enforcement source said the police hate crimes unit had rejected the incident as a bias crime. He said the two youths were harassing a 40-year-old woman in a car and her 37-year-old boyfriend assaulted them.
The man has been identified and a search for him is under way, the source said.
In Houston on Sunday, a Muslim doctor headed for morning prayers at a mosque was shot in an attack by three men. The motive was unclear, but came a day after another Muslim man was beaten outside a Florida mosque. (Reuters)
