NEW YORK — A Muslim cab driver stabbed in an alleged hate attack in New York was due to meet Mayor Michael Bloomberg Thursday.
Cabbie Ahmed H. Sharif, 43, also planned to join representatives from the New York City Taxi Workers Alliance in a press conference to call for an end to bigotry and anti-Islamic rhetoric in the debate over plans to build an Islamic center and mosque two blocks north of ground zero.
Prosecutors charged baby-faced college student Michael Enright Wednesday with using a folding knife to slash the neck and face of the taxi's Bangladeshi driver after the driver said he's Muslim. Police said Enright was drunk at the time.
Enright once volunteered with a group, called Intersections International, that promotes interfaith tolerance and had recently filmed a documentary in Afghanistan — actions distinctly at odds with what authorities say happened inside a city taxi.
A representative of Intersections International, which supports the mosque project, called the attack "tragic."
"We've been working very hard to build bridges between folks from different religions and cultures," the Rev. Robert Chase said. "This is really shocking and sad for us."
Chase said Enright had volunteered for the group for about a year on a project that involved veterans.
He did a video project that sent him to Afghanistan for about six weeks this spring to document the life of an average soldier, Chase said. He was embedded with a unit there.
Intersections has come out in support of the mosque project, but Chase said Enright wasn't involved in that.
'I feel very sad'
NBC reporter Katy Tur said on "Countdown with Keith Olberman" that Enright showed no animosity toward Muslims when he contacted her by email to seek publicity about his documentary, which follows a U.S. soldier Enright knew.
"He just wanted to get a point across that soldiers were not getting enough attention back in the U.S.," Tur said, noting his politeness. "He didn't say anything against Muslims or their faith."
Enright filmed the documentary while volunteering for Intersections International.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance quickly used the attack to denounce "bigotry" over the mosque plans.
Sharif, who's driven a cab for 15 years, was quoted in a news release from the labor group as saying the attack had left him shaken.
"I feel very sad," he said. With the tension over the mosque, he added, "All drivers
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Source : www.msnbc.msn.com
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