
A judge upheld a hate crime charge against Michael Enright, the 22-year-old film student who allegedly slashed a taxi driver in an anti-Muslim attack, the Canadian Press reports.
New York Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers said a grand jury had had enough evidence to indict Enright and planned a hearing for March 30 to set a trial date.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Michael Enright, the aspiring filmmaker charged with slashing a New York City cab driver back in August because he was a Muslim, will be released on $500,000 bail, New York Daily New reports.
In an apparent drunken haze, the 21-year-old Enright, a student at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, allegedly boarded a cab, asked the driver about his religion and proceeded to stab the driver while allegedly yelling "This is a checkpoint, this is checkpoint, motherf**ker, I have to put you down." Enright had been on a trip to Afghanistan, where he was embedded with a Marine Unit.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The aspiring film student who allegedly stabbed a cab driver because he was a Muslim told cops that he was being prosecuted because of his Irish heritage and faith when he was arrested last month.
"You're prosecuting me because I'm Irish Catholic," Michael Enright told cops, according to new court documents revealed Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Michael Enright -- the aspiring filmmaker who allegedly slashed a cab driver in New York because he was Muslim -- was denied bail on Monday after his lawyer argued that Enright was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and was an alcoholic, The New York Times reported.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Pamela Geller, the blogger behind the movement to stop an Islamic center from being built a couple of blocks from Ground Zero, told TPMMuckraker that she doesn't know who is behind the attack on the taxi cab driver -- but noted the attacker worked with a company that was pro-Park51.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Last night, Stephen Colbert was surprised to hear about accused Muslim cabbie slasher Michael Enright's background, especially when he went through recent editions of the New York Post. Enright "wasn't even in this one titled 'If You're Mad About Islam You Should Pull Over A Muslim Cab Driver And Stab Him,'" Colbert said.
He continued that people like Enright are "sully[ing] Muslim bashing for the rest of us law abiding bigots," like the drunk man who was arrested for urinating on a prayer rug in a New York mosque, or as Colbert called it, "criminal tres-pissing."
This act, Colbert said, elicited strong reactions from "Imam Mohammed Nadir Al-Dude," more commonly known as the character "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Michael Enright, the 21-year-old student filmmaker accused of slashing a cab driver because he is Muslim, has been transferred from jail to the psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital.
The AP reports that Enright was transferred from Rikers Island last night. He is being held without bond pending a court appearance Monday morning in Manhattan.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Two seemingly contradictory portraits are emerging of Michael Enright, the 21-year old aspiring filmmaker arraigned yesterday on hate crimes charges for allegedly stabbing a New York City cab driver because he was Muslim.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Ahmed Sharif, the New York City cab driver stabbed after allegedly being asked if he was Muslim, described the violent attack to local TV news reporters, saying he pleaded with his attacker not to kill him.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Friends and classmates say Michael Enright, the 21-year-old aspiring filmmaker who was arraigned on a hate crimes charges this afternoon for allegedly slashing a NYC cab driver because he was a Muslim, had a serious drinking problem. But a representative of one of the country's predominant Muslim groups told TPMMuckraker that the incident should serve as a warning to those using inflammatory rhetoric about those who practice Islam.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)The picture of Michael Enright, the 21-year-old New York film student accused of stabbing a cab driver after asking if he was Muslim, is still emerging, but two of his classmates at the School of Visual Arts told TPM that Enright struggled with alcohol abuse.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Michael Enright was arraigned this afternoon in Manhattan criminal court, but entered no plea for the three charges: attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime, assault in the first degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.
The judge ordered him held without bond. His next court date is Monday, Aug. 30.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Intersections International, the interfaith group "dedicated to promoting peace and understanding" between cultures which has a volunteer named Michael Enright, said today they hope their volunteer is not the same man who allegedly slashed a cab driver last night after asking if he was Muslim.
"I am deeply distressed if this is the Mike Enright that we know," the group's executive director, the Rev. Robert Chase, told TPMmuckraker.
"Especially, or sadly, ironic, is that our work is about building bridges between different faiths, different ethnicities, different cultures," Chase said. "This is exactly the opposite of what we stand for."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)The man accused of stabbing a Muslim NYC cab driver hardly has the background one might expect from someone charged with a hate crime committed in a drunken rage.
Michael Enright is a film student at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and has been working with the Intersections International, an interfaith and multicultural effort which seeks to promote justice and peace. The project's website is strongly supportive of the Cordoba House project in lower Manhattan and videos of its leader, Imam Faisel Rauf, are posted on their website.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)The New York City cab driver allegedly stabbed repeatedly by a 21-year-old man who first asked if the driver was Muslim has released a statement through the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, saying "I never feel this hopeless and insecure before."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)The New York Police Department has confirmed to TPM that a cab driver in Manhattan was allegedly stabbed by a passenger who asked if the cabbie was Muslim, and says the incident is being treated as a hate crime. The suspect has been charged with attempted murder and other crimes.
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