Police investigate attack on Jewish man in Michigan as bias-motivated

By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) – Police in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said late Sunday they were investigating the attack on a 19-year-old Jewish man as a “bias-motivated attack” after the man told police the attackers asked him about his religion.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

Human rights activists have warned of a growing threat to American Muslims, Arabs and Jews since the outbreak of Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, which followed an attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on October 7.

KEY QUOTES

“The 19-year-old male victim stated he was walking when a group of unknown men behind him asked if he was Jewish. When the victim answered 'yes,' the group of men proceeded to attack him,” police said in a statement.

According to police, the suspects fled the area on foot. The victim suffered minor injuries and was not taken to hospital.

“We take bias-motivated crimes very seriously and have assigned this incident to our hate crimes investigator,” the statement said.

CONTEXT

Numerous cases of alleged attacks on American Muslims and Jews have been reported.

In August, a former Cornell University student was sentenced to prison for posting online threats against Jews, a Jordanian citizen in Florida was charged with threatening businesses for allegedly supporting Israel, and a man was charged with planning an attack on a Jewish center in New York City on the anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

Last October, an Illinois man was charged with a hate crime for stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy to death. In February, the stabbing attack on a Muslim man in Texas met the definition of a hate crime, according to police, and in June, a Texan woman was charged with the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Muslim girl, which police said was motivated by bias. The August attack on a Muslim man in New York City was described by authorities as a hate crime.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)