Slashed cabbie speaks out

NEW YORK – Slashed cabbie Ahmed Sharif said yesterday that he didn’t think his throat-slashing was linked to the anti-Islam furore over the so-called Ground Zero mosque.“No, we didn’t have a talk about the mosque,” Sharif said of the brief conversation he had with accused attacker Michael Enright.But he said after meeting with Mayor Bloomberg yesterday that he had no doubt he was targeted because he was Muslim.“Of course it was for my religion,” Sharif said. “He made some jokes about Ramadan. He screamed ‘this is the checkpoint’ and he had to put me down.”The head of the taxi workers union, which is 50 per cent Muslim, said the political rhetoric over the proposed Park 51 mosque had reached such a fever pitch that “some sort of violence felt inevitable”.Sharif’s throat was cut on Tuesday, allegedly by a drunken 21-year-old passenger who had recently been filming soldiers in Afghanistan and who confirmed that Sharif was a Muslim before wielding his pocket knife.Bhairavi Desai of the Taxi Workers Alliance blamed politicians for whipping up anger and fear.“While they can hide behind a podium and bully pulpit, it’s the ordinary working person on the street that faces the consequences,” she said.Desai called it “absolutely unacceptable” to see fear-mongering in multi-cultural New York.“This is the capital of the world! This isn’t Arizona, this is New York City!” she said, to cheers from cabbies assembled on the steps of City Hall.Sharif, who brought his wife and four kids – the youngest girl just a babe in arms – to meet the Mayor, called New York City his home.“I feel like I belong here, (like) I was born here. I’ve been here for a long, long time,” he said. “This city must be safe for everyone . . . . All colour, races, all religions. Everyone. We live here side by side, peacefully. Lovely.”In obvious pain, and sometimes overcome with emotion, Sharif said he was haunted by what happened.“Still I have a view of the knife when I close my eyes,” he said.“Fortunately, these things are rare, but one time is one time too many,” Bloomberg said. (New York Daily News)