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WATCH: Muslim Store Owner in Tears After He’s Beaten by Man on Mission to ‘Kill Muslims’
Trump is inspiring a wave of hate crimes against Muslims.
As Islamophobia continues to rear its ugly head in America, hateful rhetoric turned into a hate crime last night in Queens, New York — the home of billionaire Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
53-year-old Sarker Haque, owner of the Fatima Food Mart on 21st avenue in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, was viciously attacked last night by a man who admitted to targeting Muslims. The attacker has been identified as 55-year-old Piro Kolvani.
“He punched me as much as he can with his left hand,” Haque told PIX11 News. “I say, ‘What the hell you doing? What’s wrong with you?’ [The attacker] said, ‘I kill Muslims.’”
Kolvani, reportedly dressed in business attire, first posed as a customer before turning violent.
“He asked me, ‘do you have anything free?’ I said ‘what are you talking about buddy? What are you asking?’” Haque told CBS New York. It was then that Kolzani punched him repeatedly, causing Haque to fall down behind the counter. Kolvani continued the assault until a customer came to Haque’s rescue.
“I thought he was going to kill me,” Haque said.
The attack on Haque is just the latest in a series of escalating violence and threats against Muslims around the US. Earlier this week, a Muslim 6th-grade student wearing a hijab was attacked by her classmates, who called her “ISIS” as they put her in a headlock, punched her, and tried to tear off her hijab. The same day, a mosque in Philadelphia reported that an unknown man in a red pickup truck left a pig’s head at the front door of the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in the early morning hours — pork is considered unclean to practitioners of Islam. And a mosque in Irving, Texas, has been repeatedly targeted by heavily-armed, anti-Muslim protesters since the Paris attacks.
The attack on Sarker Haque is being investigated as a hate crime.
