US police in hate crime probe after New York subway attack on Muslim woman

New York police's hate crime department is investigating an alleged physical and verbal attack on a young Muslim woman in the city's subway earlier this week.

A 28-year-old Muslim woman was in the New York City subway on Tuesday when a stranger approached her and made an advance. After rejecting him, the man allegedly grabbed the woman, cut her with a sharp object, and made anti-Muslim comments.

A bystander who tried to come to her aid was repeatedly slashed as well, according to a report in local media. 

As of Thursday, the alleged attacker was still at large, leaving local residents on edge at a time when subway crime is on the rise. According to the NYPD, compared with the same period last year, through the end of October, transit crimes are up 41.7 percent.

The incident particularly highlights the vulnerability of Muslim travellers, particularly women who are often more conspicuous than men in a community where hate and bias incidents are high but reporting is low.

"We want to encourage our community to report hate crime," Afaf Nasher, executive director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told The New Arab.

Nasher noted that only around four percent of anti-Muslim hate crime in the US is reported by the community. "Unfortunately, this is all too common," Nasher added.

Around 75 percent of those who responded to a survey by CAIR, which published a report called Feeling the Hate, said they had been targeted, though only a small proportion had come forward, calling the process "a waste of time".