FBI investigates attack on Muslim woman by Indiana college student
| Bloomington, Ind.
The FBI has opened a hate crime investigation into an attack on a Muslim woman in which police say a 19-year-old college student shouted racial slurs and tried to remove her headscarf.
FBI Special Agent Wendy Osborne there is no deadline for concluding the investigation into Saturday's incident in Bloomington, Indiana.
Bloomington police say Triceten Bickford of Fort Wayne, Indiana, assaulted the 47-year-old woman outside a Turkish cafe.
Witnesses say Bickford shouted "white power," ''kill the police" and an anti-black racial slur. He's also accused of trying to remove her headscarf and restricting her breathing.
Indiana University expelled Bickford following reports of the attack.
After living in the US for 18 years, the woman said she has 鈥渘ever experienced any kind of discrimination or racism, let alone an all-out attack,鈥澛�. But the incident comes at a time of heightened racism against Muslims in the US.聽
鈥淯nfortunately, we鈥檙e seeing a growing anti-Muslim sentiment in our society,鈥� Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications Director with the Council on American-Islamic Relations聽, told 海角大神 Tuesday.
鈥淚 can say I鈥檝e been working at this organization for over three years, and the number of instances, and the general atmosphere in the country, it鈥檚 more than I鈥檝e ever seen,鈥� Madihha Ahussain, staff attorney with Muslim Advocates in Oakland, Calif.,聽tells 海角大神. 鈥淎nd a lot of people who鈥檝e done this a long time 鈥� there鈥檚 talk about how it seems even worse than after 9/11.鈥�
Bickford is scheduled to appear in court Friday on felony charges of strangulation, intimidation, battery on a police officer, and misdemeanor charges.
What's a hate crime? Here's how the :
.
For the purposes of collecting statistics, Congress has defined a hate crime as a 鈥渃riminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender鈥檚 bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.鈥� Hate itself is not a crime鈥攁nd the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties
The FBI reports that there were . Of that total, 135 were anti-Islamic. Among religious hate crimes, the biggest total was anti-Jewish, with 625.
