After the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israeli towns bordering Gaza, Jewish and Muslim leaders in the United States, along with law enforcement and other public officials, predicted an increase in religious hate crimes and bias complaints.
There’s early evidence the worries have been justified, including the fatal Oct. 14 stabbing in suburban Chicago of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy, who was attacked along with his mother “due to them being Muslim,” police said. Yet the full picture remains murky, including in New York City, where authorities have released only partial data on attacks since the Hamas attack and ensuing fighting. Further, hate crimes experts say, extra media coverage can fuel spikes in reporting, if not actual incidents, clouding the picture.
Nonetheless, reports of religious hate crimes, bias incidents and related complaints, in New York and the region, continue to flow from law enforcement and unofficial sources, including Jewish and Muslim organizations. Their tallies run the gamut from threats on social media to physical assault, against the backdrop of the unfolding Israel-Hamas war.
The NYPD on Friday arrested two men on hate crime and other charges following an Oct. 11 incident in Bay Ridge, where nine men waving an IsraelI flag allegedly accosted three men – identified as Egyptian and Palestinian – near 86th Street and Fourth Avenue. Police said the group – seven others remain at large – is accused of making anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian remarks before assaulting an 18-year-old victim. Gabi Zaibak, 28, and Eddie Zaibak, 26, face assault, aggravated harassment and menacing, all as hate crimes, police said.
On Thursday, a Manhattan man was arrested on charges he assaulted a 19-year-old Sikh man on an MTA bus near 118th Street and Liberty Avenue in Queens on Oct. 15. According to the NYPD, 26-year-old Christopher Philippeaux repeatedly struck the victim in his face and the back of his head, tried to remove his…
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