US Justice Department probing NY Muslim cabby’s throat slashing as possible hate crime

NEW YORK - The US Justice Department is reportedly probing the throat slashing of a New York Muslim taxi driver by 21-year-old American film student Michael Enright, as a possible hate crime.

A Justice Department spokeswoman, Xochitl Hinojosa, has said that the Department is investigating with local authorities to draw a conclusion in the case.

“The federal probe is part of a sweeping case that has FBI agents digging into anti-Muslim attacks against mosques or mosque construction sites in Arlington,” the New York Daily News quoted her, as saying.

The investigation is one of the first cases pursued under a new federal hate crimes bill, the Matthew Shepard Act, signed into law last fall by President Obama.

Meanwhile, Justice spokesman Matthew Miller has said that Attorney General Eric Holder backed the Department’s strong commitment “to prosecuting hate crimes”.

“Violence against individuals or institutions based on religious bias is intolerable, and the department will bring anyone who commits such crimes to justice,” he further stated.

Sharif, a 43-year-old Queens resident, was slashed several times after picking up a passenger at 24th Street and Second Avenue on Manhattan’s East Side on August 24 this year. The passenger allegedly enquired whether he was a Muslim, before slashing him across the throat, arm and lip.

The cabbie, who survived the attack, earlier said that he started feeling insecure and that this extreme step was an outcome of the controversy about the building of a Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero. (ANI)