NY Taxi Union Battles Anti-Muslim Hatred after Cab Driver Stabbed

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.labornotes.org/2010/08/ny-taxi-group-battles-anti-muslim-hatred-after-cab-driver-stabbing

Mark Brenner | August 27, 2010

Nine years ago, a wave of assaults and vandalism rocked New York’s taxi drivers, as the backlash following the 9/11 attacks led some to target a visible—and vulnerable—Muslim population behind the wheel.

Ahmed Sharif, a 15-year veteran cab driver in the city, was among those who joined the New York Taxi Workers Alliance then.


At a City Hall press conference cab driver, and New York Taxi Workers Alliance member, Ahmed Sharif recounts how a passenger tried to cut his throat after asking him whether he was Muslim.


And when Sharif was attacked Tuesday in a new round of anti-Muslim hysteria, rising from the heated debate over plans to build an Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero, his organization rose to defend him—and thousands of fellow Muslim taxi drivers in New York.

Minutes after picking up his first fare of the evening August 24, Sharif was repeatedly stabbed by 21-year-old film student Michael Enright.

According to Sharif, his assailant asked him where he was from and whether he was Muslim before he pulled out a knife and tried to slash his throat. Enright had recently returned from Afghanistan, where he spent five weeks embedded with Marines shooting a documentary film project for school.

“Of course it was for my religion,” Sharif said, explaining his attack to reporters after meeting with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on August 26. “He made some jokes about Ramadan. He screamed ‘this is the checkpoint’ and he had to ‘put me down.’”

FULL story at link.