Piece of Shit

There are debates going on list-servs (and in person) whether Labor should be chiming in about the NYC Muslim Center situation. I was torn about this whole situation, and then changed my mind from one of the discussions we had at the UR Facebook page. The more I talked with people about this the more I realized that my initial impression had to do with my raw emotion of it all (this is all in the comment thread at the FB page).

The disucssion is good, enlightening and very helpful, no doubt. But there should be NO debate around mindless hate crime stabbings of another worker because he happens to be Muslim, that's just bullshit. Not only is it BS, now labor DOES need to talk up and get in the mix because if we believe an injury to one is an injury to all, then we were all just stabbed this week.

Do you know what I am referring to? Earlier this week a yellow cab driver in New York City, Ahmed Sharif began his shift in the late afternoon. He picked up a white kid, seemingly harmless down on 24th Street and Second Avenue. The two headed to Times Square. The passenger began a friendly conversation with the driver. He asked him where he was from, how long he'd been in the US, if he was Muslim and if he was observing Ramadan.

According to a press release issued by the New York Taxi Worker Alliance, the passenger fell silent for a few minutes, and then began his outburst. He began cursing and screaming at Sharif before screaming "Assalamu Alaikum. Consider this a checkpoint," and then slashed Mr. Sharif across the neck.  As Mr. Sharif went to knock the knife out, the perpetrator, continued to scream loudly, cut the taxi driver in the face (from nose to upper lip), arm and hand.

From what I heard today, the stabbing was done by a 21 year-old punk kid who lost his way, obviously.

The deal is that in the US you can hate anyone you want, that's your prerogative, but why the hell would you start stabbing at someone because of their religious background? This worker did not crash those planes into the World Trade Center, this worker is an innocent man with a family.

Now labor DOES need to speak up about this, and it needs to do it quick.