Reporter Interviewed Man That Stabbed Taxi Driver

[democracy1st]

Run time: 11:04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcpPaYtQPB4   Posted on YouTube: August 26, 2010 By YouTube Member: MOXNEWSd0tCOM Views on YouTube: 292   Posted on DU: August 26, 2010 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 1299

 
August 25, 2010 MSNBC Keith Olbermann
http://MOXNews.com/

Keith breaks it down!


Ahmed H. Sharif, 43, a yellow taxi cab driver slashed across the neck, face and shoulders by a passenger during an anti-Muslim hate crime will stand with fellow New York Taxi Workers Alliance members, and community, immigrant and Muslim organizations to call for an end to the bigotry and anti-Islamic rhetoric in the debate around the Park 51 Islamic Cultural Center, referred to as the Ground Zero Mosque. "I feel very sad. I have been here more than 25 years. I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here. I never feel this hopeless and insecure before," said Mr. Sharif. "Right now, the public sentiment is very serious (because of the Ground Zero Mosque debate.) All drivers should be more careful."

On Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 Mr. Sharif picked up the perpetrator at 24th Street and Second Avenue, his first fare for the shift, and headed toward Times Square. The man, 21, started out friendly, asking Mr. Sharif about where he was from, how long he had been in America, if he was Muslim and if he was observing fast during Ramadan. He then first became silent for a few minutes and then suddenly started cursing and screaming. There, at about 6:15pm at Third Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets, he yelled, "Assalamu Alaikum. Consider this a checkpoint," and then slashed Mr. Sharif across the neck. As Mr. Sharif went to knock the knife out, the perpetrator, continuing to scream loudly, cut the taxi driver in the face (from nose to upper lip), arm and hand.

"While a minority of has-been politicians spew ignorance and fear, it's the working person on the street who has to face the consequences," said NYTWA Executive Director Bhairavi Desai. "This kind of bigotry only breeds more violence and makes taxi drivers all the more vulnerable on the streets where there are no bully pulpits or podiums to hide behind." The US Department of Labor reports taxi drivers to be thirty times more likely to be killed on the job than other workers.

The 13,000-member NYTWA called on the District Attorney to be vigilant in its prosecution of the attempted murder and hate crime and urged the Governor to sign the Taxi Driver Protection Act, passed by the state legislature on June 26th, 2010, increasing penalties on crimes against taxi drivers and requiring a sign in all taxis, "WARNING: Assaulting a Taxi Driver is Punishable by Up to Twenty-Five Years in Prison." "Maybe if the warning sign was there, this kind of stranger who comes to us with hatred would have to think twice," said Anwar Hossain. "At least we could feel safer and not alone. No matter what political issue is going on, at least we could be treated as equal Americans and feel protected."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/cabbie_stabbed_for_being_muslim_i_feel_very_sad_1.php

[sabrina 1]

1. Hey, Newt Gingrich et al, this is what you are guilty of.

'Has been politicians' I suppose they are, but they never go away.

An American Terrorist. Screaming like a lunatic. I bet he's a Sarah Palin, Glen Beck fan too.

21 years old. I wonder how many of them are out there?

[HEyHEY]

2. WHere's the interview? I find Keith Exhuasting

[sabrina 1]

3. Just read the profile of the guy who attacked the cabbie.

He's not at all what I expected. Apparently he volunteered to work with an inter-faith organization and was a film student. Friends say he did have a drinking problem. And he spent some time in Afghanistan with his friend's unit, who is serving there.

[wookie72]

4. I'm not sure what to make of him

I've heard suggestions that he is some kind of Lee Harvey Oswald plant. But I think he's probably just a confused kid (yeah, I know he's 21, but that seems so young to me now, sigh).
What I really fear is that both the right and the left will jump on the "inter-faith organization" angle for very different reasons. It sounds like they had no idea how troubled this guy was.

[Turborama]

6. I'm coming to this conclusion about him...

From http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703632304575452082357090808.html?mod=googlenews_wsj">WSJ

On his Facebook page, Mr. Enright says that he has worked as a "cinematographer/photographer" with Intersections International since last August.

=snip=

Mr. Enright was featured in an article in May in the Journal News about his attempts to make a documentary film he proposed to call "Home of the Brave" about his best friend's tour of duty with the Marines in the Afghan war. He subsequently was embedded with his friend's unit in Afghanistan.

So, maybe he was just using Intersections International as a way to get embedded with his buddy's unit so he could make his documentary?

Using arts immersion, social marketing, intentional dialogue and other innovative methods, Intersections' work includes projects that promote pluralism in emerging democracies, eradicate ignorance regarding Islam, nurture global peacemakers, dismantle systemic discrimination against the LGBT community and initiate conversation among disparate groups to develop new ways of problem solving for some of society's most intractable issues.

http://www.intersectionsinternational.org/about-us

[keith the dem]

5. Keith made an incorrect statement: Other faiths have come to

the defense of the Muslim center:

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/08/23/religious-leaders-come-together-to-support-mosque/

The media continues to ignore the majority of the reasonable religious leaders and christian denominations in favor of the right wing kooks in order to meet the narrative.