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Two Muslims Severely Injured In Possible Hate Crime
WASHINGTON, March 22 (IslamOnline) -
Two Muslim men in Reno, Nevada, were brutally beaten
last Friday night just outside a mosque, in what many concerned community members are calling a hate crime.
Mahmoud Hendi, president of the Northern Nevada Muslim Community Center, in speaking with IslamOnline, said that the incident started when "two Muslims had finished isha prayer, and went outside beside their cars and began conversing when two juveniles with their baseball bats headed towards their direction and started beating on them.
"One of the Muslim brothers had a broken arm and ran into the center for help, and the other brother stayed to defend his friend and was attacked while the juveniles stole his wallet."
One of the victims, identified as Dr. Eltag Mirghani, 48, received heavy blows to his head and is currently in a coma in critical condition at Washoe Medical Center.
The other victim, Muhammad Sanad, a 46-year-old electrical engineer, shielded his head from the attack and has been treated in the hospital and released with a broken arm.
"We're looking at this as a hate crime because it was an unprovoked attack without any evidence of burglary or theft," Police Lt. Ken Lightfoot said to the Reno Gazette-Journal.
One of the two suspects identified in the attack, 15 year old David Nollette, is currently in custody in Reno, and the other suspect, 17 year old Scott Cannady, recently released from a juvenile probation facility for an armed robbery conviction, has been said to have fled the state with his mother.
The Reno Gazette Journal reports that Nolette is charged on two counts of attempted murder, as well as two counts of armed robbery and two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime.
He will be charged as an adult and will be set on a $220,000 bail.
Hendi, commented to IslamOnline that the Center will be, "making quite of bit of changes in [our] security system, we're upgrading our camera system, installing a new state of the art security system in the mosque, and we're getting our people to become more aware of their surroundings."
"The biggest issue is, sometimes as Muslims we're a little naïve about our surroundings, and our faith has taught us that whatever happens is written to happen no matter what… but people have to be more aware of their surroundings and be a little more vigilant about what they do and how they do things," Hendi adds.
Police are coming to the conclusion that this particular case may not be categorized as a hate crime because of the stolen wallet, leaving them to believe robbery was the motive for the attack.
But family members of Mirghani were hesitant to believe that this attack was not a hate crime.
Sanaa Mirghani, Eltag Mirghani's daughter told the Journal, "they could have just said, 'Hand over the wallet'. They didn't have to do all that stuff."
Friends of Nolette do not believe that he could have committed such an act, saying that Nolette never was prejudiced towards anyone, the Journal stated.
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