Region's refugee and Muslim groups on edge after attack on Somali man
February 23, 2017 12:56 PM
By some indications, it looked like a robbery with devastating results.
A cab driver was found beaten with life-threatening injuries in the early morning hours in Beltzhoover on Tuesday, where he had earlier gone to pick up a passenger and where other robberies had been reported.
But as the man’s life hung in the balance, members of Pittsburgh’s Somali Bantu community, and the wider community of Muslims and refugees, saw it as a violent manifestation of a wave of discrimination against their populations in recent months — stirred up, they believe, by political rhetoric and policies casting harsh suspicion on them as Muslims and with roots in Somalia, one of seven nations spotlighted by now-suspended travel restrictions promulgated by the Trump administration.
“This may have been a robbery that was orchestrated” by the one calling the cab, said Pittsburgh Assistant Police Chief Lavonnie Bickerstaff. But she said she understood why the community feels vulnerable, and she urged any victim of potential hate crimes to come forward. “We are committed to the safety of the Somali Bantu community.”
She joined Bantu and other Muslim community leaders at a news conference Thursday morning at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh in Oakland.
Continued: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/02/23/Refugee-and-Muslim-groups-in-Pittsburgh-on-edge-after-latest-attack-on-Somali-Bantu/stories/201702230169
Now that I read the story, it sounds like this guy was likely attacked because he is a Taxi driver, not per his status as being a Muslim, immigrant, etc. But we will see about any followup.
