Two Muslim teenagers were violently beaten outside a mosque in Brooklyn, New York, early Sunday morning, as the assailant shouted anti-Islamic slurs, calling them “F---ing terrorists."
Shocking CCTV footage of the attack shows a 16 year old boy being punched, kicked and stomped on by an attacker as he lay on the street. According to the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the assailant was heard shouting, “You Muslims are the cause of the problems of the world.”
The attack occurred around 1:18 am, when the teen had been taking a break from evening prayers outside the Brooklyn’s Muslim Community Center. He suffered a concussion, cut and bruises and a severely swollen eye and was taken to hospital following the incident. The second victim also suffered from a swollen black eye.
“The slurs heard during the assault indicate that the attack may have been fueled by hatred of the victims’ faith, thereby warranting an investigation by law enforcement into a possible bias motive," said CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher.
However, the police hate crimes unit has rejected the attack as a bias crime. “The hate crimes unit did interview both victims, who said the suspect didn’t say anything anti-Muslim to them,” a spokes person for NYPD told Buzzfeed news.
The incident comes after a string of Islamophobic attacks in the US over the last few months.
Last week Wednesday, in Minneapolis, two Muslim men were shot in what police are investigating as a hate crime.
On Sunday, a Muslim physician was shot and stabbed by three masked gunmen while he was on his way to a mosque in Houston, Texas. The next day in Ohio, an Emirati man was wrestled to the ground in the US state of Ohio and held as an Daesh suspect. The man was in the US for a medical check-up.
