US attack suspect charged with hate crimes against Muslim driver

Aug 31, 2010, 16:46 GMT

New York - A 21-year-old American suspected of knifing a Muslim taxi driver in New York has been charged with attempted murder and assault, which could put him in jail for 25 years if convicted, news reports said Tuesday.

Michael Enright was charged with the hate crimes by a grand jury in Lower Manhattan late Monday.

Enright is chargedd with slashing the throat and face of the driver, Ahmed Sharif after, after asking him whether he was a Muslim. the suspect was sitting in the back seat of the taxi in downtown Manhattan on August 24.

The wound on the throat and arm required dozens of stitches.

Police authorities said Enright plunged the knife through an open partition inside the car, saying, 'Consider this a checkpoint.'

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said following the incident that Enright said, 'Assalamu alaikum' (Arabic for 'peace be unto you') before he stabbed the driver. Sharif managed to lock the car and called for help once he was outside. Before he was received at City Hall by Mayor Michael Bloomberg August 26, Sharif told local television networks, 'I saw on his face so much hate and so upset, the anger at me, because of my religion, and it's a shock to me.'

The attack on a Muslim driver also shocked New York while controversies swirl over plans by a Muslim group to build an Islamic cultural centre just two blocks from the World Trade Center destroyed by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.