Cab Driver Stabbed For Being Muslim-

Emotions in NYC are running hot over the Ground Zero Mosque, the last thing normal people ever want is violence.  Conservatives have some additional reasons to be concerned about being tied to any violence over Mosque or any of a couple dozen other issues.   Most folks know that Progressive Liberals and Main Stream Media loves any excuse real or imagined to portray conservative as violent, gun carrying (fill in the blank) ____________

Remember NYC Mayor Bloomburg right after the Times Square Bombing incident.... It had to some wack job that didn't like Obamacare. He must have been heartbroken when the would be bomber turned out not to be a a Republican or a TEA Party supporter.. For the last couple years tying anyone remotely conservative to any politically expedient act of violence has been at the top of the liberal agenda.... I believe some of them actually relish such incidents,

The first headlines I saw were pretty ugly   N.Y. filmmaker charged with stabbing cab driver for being Muslim was how USA Today put it and the story that followed sounded uglier. 

The known facts are pretty straight forward. A cabby Picked up 21 year old Micheal Enright of Brewster NY.   Enright was druck.  Enright engaged the driver Ahmed Sharif, 43, in a brief conversation about his religion.. then according to the NYPD Enright attacked the driver with a knife slashing and stabbing him the throat, neck and arm.  The Cab Driver managed to secure Enright in the back seat and call 911

The USA Today article started off like this;

NEW YORK — A Manhattan cabbie who was stabbed Tuesday night by a Putnam County man questioned Wednesday whether the attack stemmed from the contentious debate over creating a mosque near ground zero.


Not to be left out,  Newsweek got into the act with this "Muslim Cabdriver Stabbed in New York Bias Attack"

A New York City cabdriver was attacked Tuesday night in an apparent anti-Muslim bias attack. According to the NYPD, Michael Enright, 21, of Brewster, N.Y., hailed a cab in Manhattan, asked the driver Ahmed Sharif, 43, about his Muslim faith, and then slashed and stabbed him with a knife in the throat, face, and arm, The New York Times reports.


In the midst of the controversy surrounding the so-called Ground Zero mosque and anxiety over illegal immigration, this is just the latest and most gruesome manifestation of xenophobia and Islamophobia. Over the weekend, an African-American passerby was taunted and jeered by a crowd in lower Manhattan who were protesting the plan to build an Islamic community center, known as Park51, two blocks from Ground Zero. They mistakenly believed the man to be a Muslim counterprotester

This  Video was posted on UTube by LoonWatch with the title Cab Driver Stabbed For Being Muslim, no charges filed








That was first hint the stories might not be keeping up with the facts.  No the guy might not have been formally charged (he was later) but the reporter mad it clear there were charges pending

Then things got interesting, looks like the Village Voice, believe it or not, was one of the first to shed a different light on things, I'm going to pickup about halfway through the story, a click of the title gets you the entire story.
   

The "Ground Zero Mosque"


Was the Muslim Cab Driver Slashing the First "Ground Zero Mosque" Hate Crime? (Updated) By Foster Kamer, Wed., Aug. 25 2010 @ 1:15PM 


This doesn't really distinguish itself from any other hate crime in too many ways, besides the fact that it was in broad daylight, and also, again, Enright was apparently trashed. But Murray Hill is, to many New Yorkers, a neighborhood synonymous with moneyed young white kids and the fratty bars they get sloshed at. But: This Michael Enright of Facebook is


(A) from Brewster, New York,
(B) Graduated from Brewster High School in 2007,
(C) is presumably living in New York City as he lists himself as a student at the School of Visual Arts and also,
(D) as an employee of Intersections International from August 2009 through "present."

And on August 3, 2010, Intersections International came out with this press release:



Intersections supports the efforts of its partner organizations, The Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement, to develop a Community Center and Muslim prayer space, called "The Cordoba House," at 47-51 Park Place in Manhattan. The vision is to create a place where individuals--regardless of race, faith or ethnicity--will find a center for learning, art, cultural expression and athletics; and most importantly, a center guided by the universal values of all religions--compassion, generosity, peace and human dignity.

Enright's Facebook picture shows him wearing what appears to be a flack jacket in another country, for what it's worth, but that's not too telling of anything, which may or may not be Afghanistan, where the Michael Enright involved in this altercation was recently filming "military exercises" with a "combat unit" as reported by the New York Post.



We called up Intersections International to ask them if they employed a Michael Enright, and the operator who picked up the phone told us he was a "freelancer" and connected us with a press representative, whose voicemail we got. Ben Smith at Poltiico apparently isn't having much luck getting through, either.

There's always the possibility that there are two Michael Enrights from Brewster, New York, who are 21 years old and living in New York City -- entirely possible -- or there's one, and he's working for an initiative who recently released a statement of support for Park 51/The Cordoba House, and he just stabbed a cab driver explicitly because he told Enright he's a Muslim.

We're still waiting to hear back from Intersections International. We'll update with another post when we do.

Wow!!  This would have been the perfect spot to end the blog.. If the cab driver hadn't managed to to secure the passagenger compartment  Enrights would easily been able to make a clean escape.  People would have listened to the Cab Drivers story and assumed the attacker was some Right Wing Extremist.. The assuption would keep the left's propoganda machine would be working over time to turn assumption into fact..   A lie repeated often enough....... one of the lefts favorite tactics..

I won't comment at the moment on whether or not it I think it was a planned event...  I would encourage people to see if a verifiable fund is set up for Sherif. I believe he has a family and it sounds like he'll be out of work for a while.  All so someone could make a political statement. 


As it turns out I have a little update.. Intersections International posted this;

Intersections Statement on Recent Hate Crime


RELATED NEWS:


Wednesday, August 25, 2010


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:


Rev. Robert Chase, Executive Director,
212.686.1119, rchase@intersectionsinternational.org,


Joseph Ward III, Communications Director,
646.723.7827, jward@intersectionsinternational.org

We have learned about an incident wherein one of our volunteers may have been charged with a hate crime in a stabbing incident that involved a New York City cab driver on Tuesday evening.


The alleged perpetrator is not an employee and has never been an employee of Intersections. There is a person who fits the description of the alleged perpetrator who has worked with us as a volunteer, but until we get further confirmation of the details in this incident, we cannot comment.


Our hearts go out to the cab driver, his family and any person who has dealt with such unacceptable violence.


Intersections is on record, explicitly and consistently, as promoting interfaith dialogue and cross cultural cooperation, specifically with our Muslim brothers and sisters. We deplore violence and any act that may be categorized as a hate crime.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all parties in this tragic incident.

Intersections



Opinions anyone.??