The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating a Saturday assault on a Bronx Muslim man by two assailants who shouted “ISIS” during their attack, according to a New York 1 report.
Mujibur Rahman told police that he was walking his 9-year-old niece home from school when two men came up behind him and punched him multiple times in the head while yelling “ISIS! ISIS!” The 43-year-old fell to the ground, where the suspects continued kicking him.
New York 1 reported that Rahman, who is from Bangladesh, was wearing traditional South Asian clothing when he was attacked. He was released from Jacobi Medical Center on Saturday night, according to The New York Times. The attackers have not yet been located.
Though his niece was unharmed during the attack, Rahman told New York 1 that she is now afraid to go outside.
“She could not sleep at night,” he said. “She said she didn’t want to go back to school anymore.”
The incident is another in a stunningly long list of anti-Muslim hate crimes that have cropped up across the country in recent months. An analysis from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino found that hate crimes against Muslims and mosques have more than tripled in the United States since the November terrorist attacks in Paris.
