Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Columbia University Professor Attacked in Anti-Muslim Hate Crime, Cops Say

By  Trevor Kapp and Ben Fractenberg | September 23, 2013 9:54am | Updated on September 23, 2013 5:00pm

Police video of young men wanted for alleged hate attack
View Full Caption
NYPD

WEST HARLEM — A Columbia University professor who penned a New York Times piece last year on hate crimes against American Sikhs was viciously attacked by an epithet-spewing mob on bicycles Saturday night, police said.

Prabhjot Singh, 31, had just dropped off his wife and 1 year old child at their Harlem apartment and was walking with a friend on 110th Street near Lenox Avenue around 8:15 p.m. when a group of young men on bikes approached him, he says. The group apparently believed he was Muslim, and began to attack him, he said.

"I was passing a group of young men...and I heard 'get him,' 'Osama;' I heard 'terrorist,'" Singh said during a Monday morning press conference at Columbia, "And then I felt somebody grab my beard while on a bike, [and] hit my chin."

 Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a professor at Columbia University, was beaten by a group of young men in Harlem who shouted "Osama" and "terrorist," Singh said while speaking at Columbia Monday morning. 
Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a professor at Columbia University, was beaten by a group of young men in Harlem who shouted "Osama" and "terrorist," Singh said while speaking at Columbia Monday morning. 
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

Singh, who wears a full beard and turban in accordance with his Sikh religious beliefs, was thrown to the ground, he said. 

Three bystanders then intervened and were able to stop the attack, Singh said.

"I think that the bystanders...had a critical role to play," said Singh. "I couldn't possibly, wouldn't guess what would have happened, but I certainly felt some degree of peace that I may [have been] unconscious within seconds and I wasn't. I'm sure they had role to play in that."

He added that one of the people who came to his rescue was an elderly man who told the group to "get lost."

Singh, an assistant professor at the university’s School of International and Public Affairs, underwent surgery at Mt. Sinai Hospital for a broken jaw, which was then wired by an oral surgeon, he said.

He was also treated for displaced teeth and severe bruising and swelling of the body, according to the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the assault, police said. No arrests have been made.